


The First Step

by LittleRedSpark



Series: The Journey of 1,000 Miles [1]
Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-02
Updated: 2013-08-02
Packaged: 2017-12-22 04:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 30,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRedSpark/pseuds/LittleRedSpark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'<br/>Follow the journey of a young girl as she learns of her identity and her destiny and follows it to the one place she truly belongs, with the only people who are just like her.<br/>Hogwarts AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted from FF.net, rated for safety.

Bored. Bored. So, so bored. I sat at the breakfast bar between the kitchen and dining areas, swinging my legs back and forth, staring aimlessly at the clock. It was the summer holidays, so I had no work to do. However, the same couldn’t be said for papa. He was holed up in his study, working on his newest idea for his company, Tohomiko Electronics. I pouted at the clock as it remained unmoved from the morning before burying my head in my arms with a groan, wishing for something, anything, to happen to spice up my day.

Little did I know just what I was in for.

At the sound of the doorbell, I shot up off my seat and practically sprinted towards the front door of my mansion and wrenched it open, gleeful about the break in the monotony of my day. When I did so, it took everything I had, from the endless etiquette lessons I had been learning since I was about four, for my jaw not to drop and to refrain from staring at the strangest sight I had seen in my (almost) 11 years of life. On my doorstep stood a large, bearded man. Larger than anyone I had ever seen in my life, despite the fact that everyone looked taller to me due to my exceedingly short stature, but the reason for that is something I didn’t fully understand until later.

The large man smiled at me, his brown eyes twinkling behind his unruly hair. “Hello there, Kimiko,” he said, winking amicably at me. “It’s been almost ten years since I last saw you. I don’t suppose you’d recognise me.” Looking at him, an image of a view of the countryside from the seat of a motorbike, flying through the air flashed through my minds eye. He seemed to understand what I was thinking for he chuckled.

“I suppose you’re here to see papa?” I asked, stepping aside so he could enter the house. He looked even taller inside, only prevented from having to stoop by the high ceilings of my large home.

“Actually, the two of you, you particularly.” I was rather shocked at this, I never got visitors. Ever. I didn’t even have any friends as there wasn’t anyone in the snobby private school I had gone to who was willing to look past the fact that I was rich to see the real me; no one who was a genuine friend. I showed him to the sitting room and scrambled up the stairs to fetch papa.

“Papa!” I called out upon entering his study and seeing him pouring over something on his desk. “There’s a rather…uh…” I trailed off as I reached him, searching for the appropriate word to describe the man downstairs. “…wild looking man downstairs asking for us.” I thought I saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes before they cleared, becoming his usual, playful hazel colour and he stood up, leading me out the door and downstairs to where the strange man was.

When we entered the room, papa’s smile grew wider as he approached the strange man, whose own grin widened and they shook hands, beaming.

“It’s good to see you again, Toshiro.” The hairy man greeted.

“You haven’t changed a bit, Hagrid.” He beckoned me forward and I approached, curious. We sat around the small coffee table, papa and me each in an armchair and the man whose name I now learnt to be Hagrid, sat on the sofa. Papa glanced at me with an unreadable look in his eyes before turning back to Hagrid.

“You haven’t told her yet, have you.” Hagrid observed. It was more of a statement than a question but papa answered anyway, shaking his head.

“I hadn’t the heart to. Especially after what happened when she was nine.” I inwardly winced at the memory. I had found out the reason for mama’s death, she died of a pre-natal illness and I had to be born four and a half months prematurely via C-section. I had blamed myself, rationalising it by saying that if she hadn’t been pregnant with me, she would still be alive. I ran away from home, intending to commit suicide, again justified by ‘I don’t deserve to live’. I went to the busiest street in Tokyo but before I could go through with it, I saw papa, frantically asking anyone he saw if they had seen me. I realised that I was all papa had left and it would be selfish of me to leave him alone, but, ironically, I was knocked down by a drunk driver, spending months in the hospital. And it wasn’t the first time I spent extended periods of time in the hospital. Due to my premature birth, I had to stay in an incubator in the ICU for the first year of my life and the first time papa was ever able to hold me was my first birthday. My health is also pretty fragile due to the premature birth as well as my short stature and so I was in and out of the hospital for many infections and what would be insignificant illnesses in a ‘normal’ child. I had also been kidnapped once, when I was five, and held for ransom for papa’s money and ended up in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. But that is another story.

Hagrid nodded in understanding before turning to me, producing a letter with my name written on the front of the thick envelope in a spidery hand and green ink.

“This will explain the basics and if you have any questions…” he trailed off, eyes shifting to papa and mine followed but they both simply nodded to the letter which I took apprehensively.

I opened it to find more sheets of the same heavy paper written in the same spidery green ink. “Dear Miss Tohomiko, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…” I trailed off in wonder, gawking at the writing in front of me. A school of magic? I was accepted? “I-is this a joke?”

“No, Kimiko,” papa smiled reassuringly at me, eyes crinkling the way they used to when he would talk to me about mama and her family when I was little. “You’re a witch, as was your mother and her parents came from wizarding families themselves. They all attended Hogwarts and now it’s your turn.” I looked to Hagrid for confirmation and he nodded again, eyes twinkling merrily.

“It’s true. I’m Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.” He offered his huge hand and I shook it, well, he engulfed my hand in his and shook it. A smile slowly spread its way across my face as I realised the implications of what they had just said. I was a witch. And, in September (which was really only tomorrow), I’d be going to a school for young witches and wizards. I looked through the rest of the papers in the envelope and found a book list and a list of equipment.

“Uh…where can we buy all this?” I looked from one to the other, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly at the two. “I highly doubt I can just walk into any shop on the high street and buy wizarding school supplies.”

“Well, there is a street called Diagon Alley which we can go to.” Papa answered, now looking slightly disheartened. “But it, like the school is in England.” I nearly choked on my own spit at this. _England!_ All the way on the other side of the world, England! Yeah, sure I’ve travelled around the world before and I’m sure I’ve been to England at some point but that was with papa when he was travelling for business. I’ve never been away on my own before, mostly due to papa’s overprotective nature after my not-so-innocent childhood. “I know, Kimiko, it’s very far but it’s a boarding school and it will mean that you won’t be left alone while I work and you can choose to visit during the holidays if you’d like.” I nodded.

“Right, well, we’d best get going if we’re going to get to Diagon Alley today.” Hagrid stood up, his head almost reaching the ceiling and I ran to grab a coat and shoes before we headed out to our private jet.


	2. Chapter 2

On arriving in England, we headed straight for a small street in London and stopped in front of a rather shabby looking pub with a swinging sign that read 'The Leaky Cauldron'. The three of us entered and I was taken aback. It was different than any pub I had ever seen in my life. It was relatively quiet for one thing and at least half empty.

Upon sighting Hagrid, the bartender began reaching for a glass. "The usual, I presume Hagrid?" But Hagrid waved him off, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Not today, Tom. I'm here on official Hogwarts business." The bartender's, Tom as I now knew, eyes fell upon me and they widened in shock, mine mimicking at the next words to come out of his mouth.

"Bless my soul, it's Kimiko Tohomiko." The entire pub went deathly silent as each patron turned to stare at me.

Now, being recognised in public isn't new for me seeing as papa is as rich and influential as he is but these people weren't staring at me as 'Toshiro Tohomiko's daughter' but as myself, Kimiko Tohomiko. How did they know me?

Everyone wanted to shake my hand, to greet me in some way and I was overwhelmed to be honest. This was nothing like I've ever experienced before. They weren't asking me about papa's latest venture or my latest fashion choice but simply seemed to be ecstatic to meet me. Hagrid and papa finally managed to steer me towards the back door before a trembling voice stopped us in our tracks. "M-miss T-Tohomiko."

"Why, hello professor!" Hagrid greeted him warmly as I studied him. He was tall, well to me anyway, with a bulbous purple turban around his head. "Kimiko, this is Professor Quirrel, he teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts." I smiled warmly at him and extended my hand for him to shake but he seemed, almost afraid of it. Odd.

"N-not that you n-need it, e-eh, Miss Kimiko?" Even odder. Why would this man think I wouldn't need training in defence against dark magic. He isn't psychic is he? I mean, just because my fighting instincts are better than any martial arts instructor's lessons and I could kick the world champion's ass with them when I was six, doesn't mean I don't need magical defence training…does it?

"Well, got to go now. Lots to buy!" And with that we finally managed to exit the strange pub.

We had stepped out into a sort of small alleyway with little more than enough room for the three of us when I turned to face them, planting myself in front of them in my most intimidating stance; arms folded, legs apart, eyes narrowed and drilling into theirs. For a moment, I thought I detected nervousness on their faces. "Well?" I prompted, raising my eyebrows in impatience when their confusion only seemed to increase. "How do all those people know me?" They exchanged worried glances. Well, if my curiosity wasn't piqued before, it was now!

"We'll tell you later, Kimiko, for now, we need to buy your supplies." I stared incredulously at him.

"Where? In case you hadn't noticed, papa, this is an alleyway." Hagrid chuckled as he stepped forward, producing a pink umbrella.

"Oh, but it's so much more than that!" And with a wink, he began to tap the bricks on the wall.

I had to rub my eyes to establish that this was real and not some crazy dream. The bricks had started to move aside, actually move!, forming an archway of sorts and revealing a narrow street, brimming with people. "Welcome," Hagrid stated proudly, "to Diagon Alley." The street was amazing, and the shops had some of the most weirdly wonderful names I had ever seen; 'Eeylops' Owl Emporium', 'Flourish and Blotts', 'Madame Malkins' Robes for All Occasions' and so many more! I was stunned.

"Where do we start?" I felt like a small child again on my birthday or Christmas.

"Well, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, to get your money, o' course." Money? I had money in a wizarding bank? I trotted obediently after the two tall men, headed towards the vast white marble building at the end of the street.

The inside of the building was just as magnificent, if not more so than the outside. There were high tables at which sat small creatures with long fingers and, by the looks of their shoe sizes, toes. "Goblins." Hagrid muttered in response to my unasked question. The floors were so shiny that you could practically see yourself in them and my pumps made a loud clicking sound against it. We stopped in front of the only free desk and the goblin perched atop it, by whose nametag I ascertained to be 'Griphook', peered through his glasses at Hagrid, the tallest out of the three of us.

"Yes." He drawled in a voice that was so oily it was practically tangible. Hagrid cleared his throat before speaking in a clear but expressionless voice.

"Miss Kimiko Tohomiko wishes to make a withdrawal." I kept my face as expressionless as Hagrid's voice had been but inside, I was beyond confused. How can I make a withdrawal if I hadn't an account?

Griphook leant over his desk to peer at me in a manner that was slightly creepy.

"And does Miss Kimiko Tohomiko have her key?" At this papa spoke up for the first time since we arrived, causing the goblin to cease his formidable stare and look to him. At last.

"I have it here." He announced, producing a tiny key that I had often seen hanging on a ribbon on mama's old vanity table. Oh. Perhaps this vault that was supposedly mine was mama's old vault. That would make sense. The goblin inspected it carefully and was about to motion for one of the goblins standing around the doorframe when Hagrid stopped him, reaching into one of the many pockets in his coat and producing a small sealed envelope.

He handed it to the goblin with "Master Fung gave me this." His voice then dropped to a whisper. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault You-Know-Which."

The goblin raised a brow. "Very well." And motioned for another goblin to escort us to where I assumed the vaults were.

"Vault two hundred and ninety seven." The journey to the vaults was certainly unexpected; a high speed cart plunging through stone passageways, but I had always enjoyed high speeds and was able to stomach heights. Hagrid however, looked as if he was about to vomit and papa didn't look much better. Boys are such wimps!

I followed the goblin, whose name I never had gotten, to the vault after handing him the lantern which he soon exchanged with papa for the key. As the door swung open I felt that you could've knocked me over with a feather. I didn't know what any of these coins were worth but I did know that there was a hell of a lot of money in that vault; piles of large gold coins and slightly smaller ones of silver and bronze. Papa simply chucked at my incredulous expression. "Well, you didn't think your mother and grandparents would leave you nothing did you?"

The cart once again screeched to a stop by another vault, this time, vault seven hundred and thirteen. Ah, so this was the mysterious 'vault You-Know-Which'. This time, rather than a key, the goblin merely swiped his long finger down the length of the door. And sitting in that oh-so-important vault was a single, grubby package the size of my fist. Well, that was a bit of an anti-climax. Hagrid simply lifted the package and placed it safely in his breast pocket.

We parted ways soon afterwards; papa to change some of his 'muggle money' as Hagrid put it so he could still give me pocket money – he does spoil me so!; Hagrid to 'take care of some Hogwarts' business' and I set off to Madame Malkins' – after all, the first shop I will ever stop in is a clothes shop – usually for dance – but I was there with a purpose so I headed to the uniform shop. It was rather small with a counter and two stools before large mirrors. A tall blonde girl around my age stood at one of them with a plump middle aged witch beside her, taking in the robes. She noticed me and smiled warmly, approaching. "Hello dear, Hogwarts I presume?" I nodded and she led me to the free stool and slipped a robe over my head. It completely swamped me, causing both myself and who I assumed to be Madame Malkin to giggle. "Dear me! That's my smallest size, I'm going to need a lot more pins, back in a tick, girls." She smiled warmly before hurrying towards the back of the shop. As soon as she left, the taller girl turned to me, scrutinising me with her pale green eyes.

"How on earth are you so thin? Don't you eat?" I laughed off her poorly concealed insinuation, too used to them by now to give her the satisfaction of getting to me.

"Oh, I do but I dance a lot and I'm naturally thin since I was born prematurely."

"Thin is an understatement." The girl remarked snidely with a toss of her almost-shoulder-length hair.

"If you have a problem with the way I look, just say it. I'm a big girl, I can handle it." She snorted with laughter.

"Yeah right. Big girl. How old are you? Eight?"

"Almost eleven if you must know."

"Could've fooled me." I could feel my temper beginning to flare but thankfully, Madame Malkin arrived back with her pins, preventing me from doing something I would regret later.

"There we are dear, that was easier than usual. It was as if the magic was drawn to you – the fabric just moulded itself to you." I could see the blonde girl rolling her eyes. She was exactly the sort of girl that everyone expects me to be due to my money and hates me for; rude, spoilt, arrogant… I shrugged it off and smiled at Madame Malkin, paid and left to meet papa and Hagrid in the bookstore.

Eventually we had bought everything but a wand. Hagrid led us to Ollivander's wand shop who, according to Hagrid, was the best in the business. The shop was empty when we arrived with a mysterious atmosphere that seemed fitting to the décor. Shelves upon shelves of long, narrow boxes behind a wide counter, the only other furniture in the room was a small, spindly chair upon which I sat, until a tall, frail man suddenly appeared from behind the shelves. "I wondered when I would be seeing you Miss Tohomiko." His pale blue eyes bored into my cerulean ones until he turned away, beginning to search through the boxes. His voice floated back across the shop. "It seems only yesterday that your mother was in here buying her first wand." He appeared in front of me once again, lifting a wand from its case. "Try this. Twelve and a half inches, yew, dragon heartstring." I took the wand from his outstretched hand and instinctively swiped it through the air. As soon as I did, wand boxes began falling from the nearby shelves. I sheepishly placed the wand on the counter and took a step back from it. Ollivander simply raised an eyebrow. "Apparently not. How about…this. Eleven inches, holly, unicorn hair." I, once again, reached for the wand but this time, as soon as it was within my grasp, the vase of flowers on the windowsill shattered. "No, no, definitely not." I glanced over my shoulder at papa and Hagrid who simply shrugged. "I wonder." I heard his voice coming from near the back of the shop, but I don't think Hagrid of papa did – I always have had great hearing. I leaned forward to see Mr Ollivander approaching, taking a wand carefully from its box. "Ten inches, cherry, phoenix feather." He remarked, handing me the wand. Once in my hand, I felt warm all over, in a good way. It felt _right_. Small flames flickered from the end of the wand and I heard papa and Hagrid applauding behind me and I heard Ollivander mutter under his breath "Curious, very curious." I had the distinct feeling that I was the only one who heard.

"I'm sorry, but, what's curious?" He looked surprised that I had heard him but didn't hesitate to answer me.

"I remember every wand I have ever sold Miss Tohomiko. And it so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather lies in your wand gave another feather. Just one other. It is curious that you should be destined for this wand when its brother gave you that scar." He indicated the lightning shaped scar, covered by my fringe, on my forehead.

"And who owned that wand?" Was I finally to get answers? His sharp intake of breath told me otherwise.

"We do not speak her name!" My disappointment must have shown on my face and he interpreted it differently for he continued. "But I think it is clear that we can expect great things from you. For after all, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible! – but great." We paid for the wand before leaving.

"Your train leaves this afternoon so you may as well buy some new clothes while we're here." Well, what girl can resist the chance to buy a whole new wardrobe and at the same time, explore a new shopping district?

That lunchtime, the three of us sat in the Leaky Cauldron, me with all of my supplies and my new trunk packed and my new snowy owl, Sakura – a parting gift from papa. I couldn't take the silence anymore. "She's the reason everyone knows who I am, isn't she? The one who gave me this." I indicated the scar on my forehead. Noticing their shared glances, I sighed. "Both of you know. I know you do. And you did say you'd tell me later. Well?"

"Alright." Hagrid sighed. "But before we do, understand this: not all wizards are good. Ten years ago one went as bad as you can go and her name was…W-W…"

"Why don't you write it down?" He almost laughed at that but only papa cracked a smile.

"No – I can't spell it." He took a deep breath. "Her name was Wuya."

"Wuya?" Sounds like an ancient witch's name – the evil fairytale kind.

"Sssh! It was dark times Kimiko. She was going round recruiting followers, not many refused – those who did wound up dead." Papa spoke up then.

"Your grandparents took you into hiding but she found you. They fought against her – trying to protect you."

Hagrid laughed humourlessly. "But no one lived once she decided to kill them. Except for you. Twice."

"Me?" I squeaked. "Wuya tried to kill me? Twice?"

"That was the second time." Papa spoke again, his voice lowered to the comforting tone he would use when I was in hospital or when I woke up with nightmares after the ordeals when I was five and nine. "The first was the reason for your mother's pre-natal illness."

"That's why everyone knows your name." Hagrid added, nodding earnestly. "You're The Girl Who Lived." Twice. Wow. That's a lot to take in.


	3. Chapter 3

Papa and I arrived at Kings Cross station half an hour later. Hagrid had left to deliver the special package after giving me my ticket – the Hogwarts Express: leaves platform 9 ¾ at eleven o'clock. I wasn't entirely sure how to get onto said platform though.

That was when I noticed a family of tanned brunettes, all with green eyes pass, four boys and a girl pushing trollies, a woman who I assumed to be their mother and another young boy of about five years old holding her hand. I happened to hear the mother saying "Packed with muggles, of course, platform 9 ¾ this way." as she passed. I grinned, turning to raise an eyebrow at papa before following them. I saw the friendly family banter between them and felt a yearning for my own mother and remembering the conversation over lunch, a sudden surge of hatred towards this 'Wuya'. The boys had all gone through to the platform before I snapped out of it and I interrupted just before the girl went through.

"Excuse me." I pushed my trolley easily to where the three were standing. "Could you tell me how to…uh…" The woman smiled brightly at me.

"To get onto the platform?" At my nod, she continued, "All you need to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10."

"Good luck!" the small boy piped up from his position, half behind his mother. I flashed him a smile before turning to papa.

"Sayonara papa." I flung myself at him in a hug and he caught me easily. "I'll write every week, I promise." He kissed my head and waved as I turned towards the barrier, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

Determined, I walked steadily at the barrier and before I knew it, I was on a busy platform with a scarlet steam engine and owls flying everywhere.

As I was about to lift my trunk onto the train, the two twin boys from the family I had seen earlier approached me. "Here, let us help you with that."

"It's alright, really. I can do it." They looked at me disbelievingly and I sighed. "Knock yourself out." I watched them struggle with the trunk for ages – it was pretty full with books and all of my clothes! – before I got fed up, pushed them aside and lifted it onto the train myself. I turned round to see them gawking at me. I just laughed, lifting Sakura's cage onto the train too.

"You're deceptively frail, you know that?" One twin noted, still in a state of shock.

"Yeah, you're tiny but you're stronger than the two of us put together!" I just laughed, jumping on to the train.

"Don't judge a book by its cover!" I shouted back to them over my shoulder and saw their eyes widen in awe. I stopped and turned, cocking my head to the side but they merely indicated my forehead and I understood.

"You're Kimiko Tohomiko." I shook my head, still smiling as I entered the train.

"Well, obviously, I know that."

* * *

The train hadn't been moving for very long when the door of my empty compartment swung open to reveal the girl from the platform, her lime green eyes apprehensive. "Do you mind?" she inquired timidly, indicating the seat opposite me. "Everywhere else is full." I grinned. At least I will know someone before I arrive.

"Of course not, come on in!" she sat down and almost immediately her twin brothers entered, tall and gangly.

"Ah, you found a seat, good." They then noticed me. "Sorry about earlier, we've never met a celebrity before." I rolled my eyes playfully.

"Really, I never would've guessed!" They laughed along with me.

"I like you, you're funny. Anyway, I'm Fernando, this is Ricardo and we'd better go, hope to see you later, Kimiko!"

"You too!" I called out the door after them, giggling. Despite the fact that I'm more famous here than in the muggle world, they treat me like a real person. I turned back to the girl in front of me. "Oh, how rude of me, I haven't introduced myself; I'm Kimiko Tohomiko."

"Maria Pedrosa," she appeared less shocked than her brothers had been, perhaps she figured it out by their comments earlier. "Do you really have a scar?" I smiled wryly.

"Unfortunately, yes." I lifted my fringe to prove it. "But luckily my hair hides it."

"I love your hair, by the way, mine's so strait, I wish it was thick and curly like yours." She sighed wistfully, twisting her hair through her fingers.

"I'll bet yours is easier to deal with though. You should see mine in the morning." I giggled at the thought of my tangled black waist length curls first thing in the morning. She giggled along with me once again before we were once again interrupted by the opening of the door, once again by one of her brothers.

This time it was the youngest of the four boys at school, maybe a year older than me. The first thing I noticed, however, was that his eyes, although the same shape as the others', were a deeper shade of green, almost emerald. There were two boys behind him, a large blue eyed, blond sporting a cowboy hat and a shorter bald, round headed boy. "Oh, look guys, Maria's found herself a little friend. And little really is the appropriate word." He commented, eyes laughing, eying me up and down. I burst out laughing.

"He's your brother?" I asked incredulously, fighting hard not to burst into fresh peals of laughter at her nod. "What a patronising jerk." He raised an eyebrow at that.

"You got something to say, midget?" At that my temper really flared and I jumped from my seat, and stared him down, eyes narrowed, hands on hips.

"What gives you the right to call me that?" He smirked.

"Oh, a little sensitive about our height, are we? And with good reason, I suppose." I managed to calm down and smirk back.

"We all have reasons to be sensitive about something, mine is things related to my mother, yours; I bet it's…being overshadowed by your older brothers so that you never seem good enough." His smirk vanished and his eyes widened in shock as did my smirk. "Looks like I just hit the nail on the head."

"Well, well, Raimundo, looks like you just met your match!" Maria teased, shaking with laughter. I exchanged a high five with her as the two boys behind him joined in our laughter. The blond one stepped forward, holding out his hand.

"I congratulate you, you've rendered him speechless – not an easy task I assure you." I laughed harder, shaking his hand. "I'm Clay Bailey, by the way." The bald one waved from his spot by the door. "That's Omi."

"And this idiot," Maria poked him for emphasis, "is my brother, Raimundo." He snapped out of his shock to glare at her.

"Kimiko Tohomiko." I managed to say between giggles. All three boys' heads snapped towards me and Raimundo groaned loudly.

"Ugh, we're gonna be expected to 'protect' – more like babysit – the little brat!"

"You're the one who's the ridiculous prat!" I shot back, turning to face Clay and Omi, tuning him out. "It was very nice to meet you guys."

"You too Kimiko. We'd better go now." And with that the three of them left, Raimundo sulking and Clay and Omi waving.

"Your brother's a jerk." I remarked to Maria, relaxing into our seats once the boys left. She rolled her eyes.

"Tell me something I don't know." I propped my head up on my elbow, curious.

"Tell me about the rest of your family." She smiled.

"Well, I'm the only girl amongst seven boys." I winced sympathetically. "Juan's the oldest, he works as a curse breaker in Egypt for Gringotts; then there's Carlos, he works with dragons in Romania; then Pedro the Prefect; the twin pranksters Fernando and Ricardo; Raimundo who pulls off even more epic pranks and manages to get away with them; and then little Alejandro, he seems to like you by the way, he doesn't usually talk to strangers – just hides behind mum. But you put out that kind of vibe that it's hard not to like you."

"He's adorable." I paused, remembering something. "What did Raimundo mean when he said that the three of them would have to 'protect' me? As if I need them protecting me!"

"The three of them are the Xiaolin Warriors – the personification of each of the four elements. Clay is Earth, Omi is water and Raimundo is Wind. They haven't found fire yet." Well, that partially explains the arrogance. I mean, technically he is better than anyone else – well, apart from Clay, Omi and whoever fire is – but that doesn't mean he should act like it. Isn't humility one of a warrior's greatest skills? Or something like that anyway. "So I've told you all about my family, tell me about yours. I mean, I know about your mum and your grandparents but what about the rest of your family?"

"Well, it's just me and papa." Her eyes widened like saucers and I giggled. The idea of a small family such as mine was as foreign to her as the thought of her huge one. "He's great but he has to work a lot so I'm often left alone in the house, bored. It gets so lonely there – the house is so big and yet it's just the two of us in it."

"Mine is tiny, we're all pretty cramped but it's homey, you know?" I smiled wistfully at the thought of such a house. "What's your dad like? I heard he's famous in the muggle world."

"Yeah, he owns the biggest gaming company in the world and is pretty much the richest person in Japan. Unfortunately that makes me a huge target and, after what happened when I was five, papa was pretty overprotective – well, more so than he had been before."

Her head tilted to the side in curiosity before she asked, almost tentatively, "What happened when you were five?"

"I had finally managed to convince papa to let me go to the park to play."

"You had to convince him to let you, a five year old girl, play in the park?" her eyebrows shot straight into her hairline. "He was _that_ overprotective before?"

I shrugged. "Well yeah, I mean my health was, and still is, quite fragile and he was afraid of losing me after mama, grandmamma and grandpapa fought so hard to save me. Anyway, I managed to convince him to let me go with a bodyguard. I was on the swings when, out of nowhere, he was shot. So, naturally, I ran to see if he was ok, when someone came up behind me and placed a cloth, laced with chloroform, over my mouth. When I woke up, God knows how much later, I was in some sort of warehouse and someone was holding me up to a webcam on a laptop. That was a big mistake. Papa and some police officers were on the other end and I could hear that my captor was holding me for ransom. Well, after he was asleep, I went to the laptop and turned on the webcam – he couldn't really expect me, the daughter of the biggest gaming tycoon in the world, not to know how to use a webcam, even if I was only five. I managed to contact papa again and was explaining everything when he came up behind me. He tried to physically remove me from the laptop but my fighting instincts have always been pretty good so he resorted to shooting me in the stomach. I spent at least two months in the hospital for that." She continued to stare at me and I noticed that it had gotten dark outside and I could see a otes]=


	4. Chapter 4

We entered the castle and filed up the staircase to stand in front of a stern looking woman with her greying hair pulled back into a tight bun. I had a feeling that she wasn't one to be messed with. "Good evening, first years." Her voice was as stern as she appeared but with a warm tone colouring it that I'm not sure many heard. "In a few moments, you will enter into the Great Hall, where you will be sorted into your houses. They are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin." Again I detected a tone of pride when she said Gryffindor and almost of disdain when she mentioned Slytherin. "While you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup." And with that, she was gone. Maria turned to me worriedly.

"I wonder how they sort us into houses, Raimundo said it was really painful." I was about to reply with a scathing comment about Raimundo's credibility when I was cut off. How many times has that happened today?

"So, the rumours on the train are true." I pivoted to face the blonde girl from the robe shop. "Kimiko Tohomiko has come to Hogwarts." I heard a whisper of 'Kimiko Tohomiko!' rippling through the crowd and as all heads turned to me, the girl approached as did a tall brunette behind her. "This is Dyris and I'm Ashley." I managed to keep my face neutral at her blatant arrogance – thank you, years of etiquette lessons! Wow, never thought I'd say that!. Maria, however, couldn't suppress a snort. Ashley turned to her, eyes blazing, though not quite as intimidating as she seemed to think it was. "You think my name's funny, do you? There's no need to ask yours." Her eyes swept Maria from toes to crown. "Brunette, green eyes and a hand-me-down robe? You must be a Pedrosa." Maria let out a snarl at this and I agreed with her. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." She held out her perfectly manicured hand for me to shake but I merely raised an eyebrow at her proffered hand.

"I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks." And by the tone of her voice and the way she glanced at Maria when she said 'the wrong sort' made me think that she was exactly the sort that I wanted to avoid. She looked like she was about to argue when the stern faced woman returned with a roll of parchment in hand, which she used to tap Ashley's shoulder with to announce her return to the bratty girl.

"We are ready for you now."

The Great Hall was magnificent, four huge tables for students – the four houses I presume – and one at the head of the room for teachers. It was lit by floating candles around the edges and the ceiling, was bewitched to look like the sky outside – yes, I read 'Hogwarts – A History' on the train. We came to a stop before the head table, where there was a small stool with a hat perched on top of it. "Now when I call out your name, you will come forward, place the sorting hat on your head and be sorted into your house." The woman unrolled her parchment.

Meanwhile, Maria leaned down to whisper in my ear, "I'm going to kill Raimundo, he was going on about wrestling a troll." I giggled and glanced towards the Gryffindor table where I saw him sitting, still maintaining a conversation with a boy with brown hair and eyes.

"Ashley Maris"

Ashley stepped forward, sat on the stool and the woman placed the hat on her head. It sat there for a moment before it screamed "Slytherin!"

The table of people clad in green and silver ties with a serpent crest on their robes cheered loudly whilst Maria whispered in my ear, once again, "There's not a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin." I glanced up at the head table and saw Professor Quirrel, facing away from me, deep in conversation with a man with greasy black hair, grey eyes and a hooked nose who was currently glaring at me. I felt a stab of pain shoot up to my scar at that moment. Curious.

"Maria Pedrosa."

Maria stepped forward nervously and the hat was placed on her head, blocking her fearful eyes from view. "Ha!" the hat exclaimed. "Another Pedrosa! I know just what to do with you. Better be…Gryffindor!" The table clad with scarlet and gold ties and their robes adorned with the crest of a lion cheered as Maria skipped merrily to join them. I saw her brother, Pedro, congratulate her as did the others, but I noticed that Raimundo hadn't broken his conversation to do so. How rude!

"Kimiko Tohomiko."

The entire hall went quiet, even Raimundo stopped his conversation. Wow, I feel so special. I sat on the stool but the hat had barely touched my head when it screamed, at the top of its lungs – if it had lungs, "Gryffindor!"

The table erupted into cheers and I distinctly heard the Pedrosa twins chanting "We got Tohomiko!" I also noticed that the headmaster, Master Fung, was clapping harder than he had for anyone else.

After all of the first years had been sorted, Master Fung rose from his seat and began to address the students. "Welcome to our new students, remember that the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step." I felt my lips twitch into a smile at the use of the familiar Chinese proverb whist Raimundo rolled his eyes and most others simply looked confused, Clay and Omi looked resigned. Apparently, Master Fung said that kind of thing a lot. "And to our returning students, keep walking." This got a laugh though. "I have been asked by Mr Argus Filch, our caretaker, to remind everyone that they are not to venture into the Forbidden Forest and, may I add to that, the third floor corridor is out of bounds to all who do not wish to die a most painful death. Eat up everyone!" And with that, he clapped his hands and the plates magically filled up with some of the most delicious food I had ever seen! And most of it I could eat – allergies! I could see everyone was still somewhat confused by the headmaster's last comment but it was Maria who spoke up first.

"I wonder what he meant by 'those who do not wish to die a most painful death'?"

"I don't know. He usually gives a reason why we aren't allowed to go places – the forest's dangerous, everyone knows that. I would've thought he would've told us prefects, at least."

"Oh, shut up Pedro. If he'd told anyone it would've been us." Raimundo indicated himself, Clay and Omi. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. For all Clay's politeness in conversation, he made up for that when eating. He was…animalistic. That's the word that comes to mind.

The boy who I'd noticed talking to Raimundo earlier spoke up then, "I'm Aidan, by the way."

The rest of the dinner went well, interrupted only by the arrival of the resident ghosts and I was introduced to 'Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington' or 'Nearly Headless Nick', Gryffindor's ghost. When it was over, the plates were magically cleared and the Gryffindor first years followed Pedro the Prefect up the moving staircases to the Gryffindor Common Room and the dorms. That night, as everyone else was asleep – I was still getting accustomed to the time difference – I sat on the windowsill with Sakura beside me, staring out over the grounds. I felt at home here. Just as much as I did in my house in Japan with papa but there was more to do here, people to do it with, things to learn, friends to make… I belonged here. Just as mama did before me, and grandmamma and grandpapa before her. I couldn't wait for my turn to begin.


	5. Chapter 5

When I woke up that morning it took me a moment to remember where I was, but once I did, my face lit up in a wide grin. I mean, yes I did miss papa – who wouldn't miss someone who they spent every day with for eleven years and now they were on the other side of the world? – but I was excited too. And this excitement only increased when I discovered what my first lesson was to be. Flying lessons. One of the things I had really been looking forward to when Maria told me about quidditch over dinner. The only downside; we were learning with the Slytherins.

Maria and I glanced at each other quickly with glee before we rushed down to the Great Hall where we proceeded to speed-eat our breakfast. "Whoa, slow down there Maria! What's the rush?" Fernando held back a laugh. "You're starting to look like Clay." Clay merely nodded in agreement.

"Flying lessons." I stated and all but Pedro nodded in understanding. We were given our timetables that morning at breakfast also and before I knew it, Maria was dragging me out to the grounds where the flying lessons were being held and I could hear hoots of laughter and shouts of 'have fun'.

* * *

Once everyone arrived on the stretch of grounds where we were to learn. The teacher, a bright eyed woman with short grey hair that stood on end, probably from the wind rushing through it when flying, stepped forward. "Good afternoon, class."

"Good afternoon, Madame Hooch." We all chorused back.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson. Now step up to the left side of your broom," we all did so and there was a tangible sense of excitement in the air, "hold your right hand over your broom and say 'up'."

A chorus of 'up's rang through the air as everyone tried to get their brooms to listen. Mine flew to my hand as if magnetised as soon as I uttered the word and Maria shot me a disbelieving glance as she continued to order her broom to rise but it merely rolled over before shooting up and whacking her right on the nose. "Shut up, Kimiko." She muttered in annoyance as I fought to control my giggles.

"Right, now everyone mount your brooms – keep a firm grip – and on my whistle, you will lean forward, rise into the air, hover for a moment, then lean forward and come back down again. Three, two, one-" she was about to blow her whistle when Michael, a rather nervous boy, shot off to early and began rising quickly despite Madame Hooch's shouts of 'Mr Goodfellow!" and our collective cries of 'Michael!" He lost all control of his broom until he got stuck on one of the torches before plummeting to the ground.

Madame Hooch rushed over to him, assessing his wrist which seemed to be broken before taking him to the hospital wing with these parting words, "Everyone is to keep their feet firmly on the ground until I return from the hospital wing. If I see a single broom in the air, the one riding it will be expelled faster than they can say quidditch."

While we all stood there, concerned for Michael's safety, Ashley and Dyris sniggered before Ashley bent to pick something up out of the grass. "Oh, look here, he dropped this." She glanced at Dyris who was snickering, holding up Michael's rememberall. "Maybe if he hadn't, he would've remembered to fall on his fat ass!"

"Give it here, Ashley." I stepped forward, voice low and deadly. She looked scared before she managed to hide it behind her sneering mask.

"No, I think I'll leave it somewhere for Goodfellow to find." She jumped on her broomstick, flying several feel into the air. "How about on the roof?" she called out as she swished past me. Face set, I started to mount my own broom but was stopped by a hand on my arm.

"Kimiko don't. You heard what Madame Hooch said, just let Ashley get in trouble but keep out of it yourself. Besides, you don't even know how to fly." That was true but I couldn't let Ashley mock Michael and steal his rememberall. So I mounted the broom and took off. It was surprisingly easy, flying. It felt natural, as if my body already knew how to do it. Ashley looked a lot less confident when she realised I could fly.

"Give that here, Ashley or I'll knock you off your broom." She raised a brow.

"Is that so?" I lunged for her but she, the more experienced flier, dodged. "Have it your way then." She flung the rememberall into the air and I dove, following its descent with my eyes and a foot from the ground, I caught it and pulled my broom safely out of the dive and dismounted gracefully as my fellow Gryffindors ran to congratulate me.

"Kimiko Tohomiko." We all turned and a feeling of dread washed over me. There stood Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house and the sternest teacher ever seen. She motioned for me to follow her and I did, rememberall still in hand. This was it. I'm going to be expelled. I should've listened to Maria but no, I had to be impulsive – why can I never be sensible? Mama would be so disappointed in me – expelled on my first day…

We stopped outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, or so I gathered from the fact that Professor Quirrel was teaching. "Excuse me professor, but could I borrow Wood for a moment?" As Quirrel nodded his agreement, I wondered if this 'Wood' was a creature they were going to sick on me as a punishment but it turned out to be a tall, Gryffindor boy. "Wood," McGonagall continued, a tone of excitement colouring her voice now, "I have found you a seeker!" What? Wood's face seemed to echo my sentiments so McGonagall continues to explain. "She caught that thing in her hand out of a fifty foot dive without a single scratch on her. On her first time on a broom too."

He started to circle muttering. "Good build for a seeker, small, lightweight, speedy…" I was still very confused and I think McGonagall noticed for she added. "Kimiko, this is Oliver Wood, Gryffindor quidditch captain." Now it made sense.

* * *

"Seeker?" Maria intoned, shocked when we were on our way to the pitch for my first practice – McGonagall and Master Fung had bent the rules and allowed me to purchase a broomstick, the Nimbus 2000. "But first years never make the house teams, you must be the youngest house player in a…" She trailed off, thinking so I finished for her.

"Century, according to McGonagall." We then entered the pitch and the twins, Fernando and Ricardo approached.

"Hey, Maria. Kimiko, you must be the new seeker Wood's told us about. You must be good, I've never seen him this excited."

"Yeah, he's like a kid at Christmas." Ricardo added. "We're the beaters, it's our job to make sure the rest of you don't get bloodied up to badly." It was then that Wood noticed us and he, along with the other three members of the team approached. "Wood's the keeper and Angelina, Alicia and Raimundo are chasers." Raimundo. Great. This will fun. At that point he chose to speak up.

"You have got to be kidding me. Her?" he turned to Wood with incredulous eyes.

"She's good, caught a rememberall from a fifty foot dive." The rest of the team looked at me approvingly but Raimundo continued to look annoyed, turning to me.

"You think that just because you're famous in both the wizarding and muggle worlds, you deserve special treatment, do you?" he spat out and the rest of the team backed off, sensing an explosion. And they got one.

"How dare you!"I screeched, stepping closer to him with each syllable and was satisfied to note that his smirk faltered a little. Good. "How dare you insinuate that I'm just here because I'm famous. That I play on that in order to get what I want." I pointed my finger, which was by now, burning just as my eyes were – that only happened when I was really mad - , in his face. "I'll have you know that I have worked my entire life to prove to people that I am not the stereotypical little rich girl who has everything handed to her on a silver platter but nothing seems to convince them, does it? Not being kidnapped and shot, not attempting suicide because of your mother's death! No, people are just stubborn and have their minds made up about me and there's nothing I can do to change them. So go ahead, believe what you want, but keep it to yourself." I could feel my temper spiralling out of control like it hadn't in years so I decided to quit whilst I was ahead but he had other things in mind.

"Oh, boo hoo. The poor little rich girl has had a hard life." I whirled back round to face him, flames flying from my clenched fists. Uh oh. I could see everyone's eyes widening at my flaming fists but I needed to relieve some of my anger before I set something on fire.

"You know nothing about a hard life. Did _**your**_ mother die of a pre-natal illness, inflicted as a result of an attempt by Wuya to kill _**you**_? Did _ **you**_ spend the first year of your life in an incubator in the ICU? Was _ **your**_ health so fragile that the smallest, most insignificant illnesses were life threatening in your infancy and early childhood? Were _ **you**_ kidnapped and subsequently shot when you were five? Did _**you**_ run away from home, intending to commit suicide when you were nine, only to change your mind but get hit by a drunk driver anyway? Did _**your**_ grandparents also die as a result of another attempt on your life? Do _**you**_ have a cumulative total of three deaths of family members as a result of attempts on your life? I think not!" I stood there, breathing heavily, literally steaming as I felt my anger wash away. I haven't felt that angry in ages. I had learnt to control it when I was seven and almost burnt down my home but there was just something about Raimundo and his arrogance that infuriated me. He really knew how to push my buttons.

They all stared at me, stunned and perhaps a little afraid. Clay, who was standing at the side with Omi and Maria, spoke up first. "Uh, Kimiko?" I turned to face him and I think everyone was glad to see that my anger had dissolved. "I think you'd better come with us." I sighed and followed Clay as Omi dragged a still stunned Raimundo behind us.

They brought me to Master Fung's office and I was suddenly afraid. Surely I wouldn't be expelled for losing my temper…would I? They knocked and I could hear Master Fung's "Come in." We pushed the door open and the four of us stepped inside. He glanced up from his desk expectantly. "Yes?"

"Uh, Master Fung," Clay began glancing between me, the others and Master Fung. "We think we've found the fourth Xiaolin Dragon." Well. Today really is the day for people saying the last thing I expect.


	6. Chapter 6

After Clay's shocking revelation, Master Fung raised an eyebrow and I glanced out of the corner of my eye to see Omi and Raimundo weren't the least bit shocked by the statement. Was I the only one in the dark again? "What exactly happened?" he inquired and Clay once again spoke up.

"Well, Raimundo was baiting her," Master Fung sent a pointed glance at Raimundo, who looked down sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "And she just…kinda…exploded." I could feel my face slowly turning red with each sentence Clay spoke. "Flames erupted around her fists…it was kinda scary."

"Has this ever happened before?"

"Well, yeah, when I was younger, I almost burnt the house down but since then I learnt to control it." I shrugged. "I don't know what happened today; I just saw red and sort of…snapped." Raimundo laughed.

"That's for damn sure!" I levelled a glare at him and he looked away quickly. Wow, was I really that scary?

"Enough Raimundo." Master Fung silenced Raimundo, for which I was very grateful. "Dojo!" He called out and a moment later, a small green dragon emerged from behind the plant. "Well, Dojo, what do you think? Is she or isn't she?" The dragon crawled over and began circling me. He then slithered up Clay's arm and settled himself on his shoulder, so he could look down on me.

"Can you do it when you're not angry?" I nodded; I had tried a few times, when bored, so I lifted my hand holding it to his eye level and engulfed it in flames. He nodded his scaly head, satisfied and turned back to Master Fung. "She is."

"Great, just great." I heard Raimundo mutter under his breath. "It's like she's everywhere!" Master Fung claimed our attention once again.

"Now, since Kimiko is only in first year and the three of you are in second," Raimundo shot me a smug grin, "Kimiko will move up to second year," Raimundo's mouth gaped, "and Raimundo will tutor her in first year studies." My jaw dropped too at that, my expression matching his.

"Why me? Can't Clay? Or Omi? They can stand her, at least!" I shot him a withering glare. I couldn't stand him either.

"No, that is precisely why I want you to do it. I can see that the two of you don't particularly get along," everyone raised a brow at this understatement, "but hopefully this will help you to." My mouth set in a grim line as I saw Raimundo groan and bury this face in his hands.

"Master Fung, this journey is bound to be longer than a thousand miles." He smiled, eyes twinkling, evidently pleased that someone understood his statement at the start of year feast.

"Suck up." Raimundo muttered under his breath. "What do you do, memorise everything a teacher says to you?"

"That happens to be one of my favourite Chinese proverbs." I shot back, eyes narrowing.

"Oh, is that what they are?" he asked, looking from Clay and Omi's faces of recently dawned understanding to Master Fung's one of resignation. "I thought he was going senile." I giggled at that, wow; he actually managed to be funny. Master Fung simply sighed and ushered us out of his office, with a promise of sending my new timetable and books later.

* * *

"Wow." Maria sat stunned at dinner. "You've had one busy day, become Gryffindor seeker, find out you are the personification of fire and skip ahead to second year. Wow."

"Well," Ricardo nudged his twin, "at least now we don't have to feel so bad that she could lift a trunk which we couldn't between the two of us."

"Yeah," Fernando nodded. "Inhuman strength and all that. Think of how good this is going to be for the team." He sat up straight in realisation. "A chaser with inhuman speed, strength and senses and a seeker with them too! We'll be unbeatable!" He continued to eat his dinner gleefully.

A shadow fell over my plate and I turned to see Ashley smirking at me, Dyris standing behind her, mimicking her stance. "Eating a last meal are we?"

I grinned at her. "I need to thank you actually."

"Uh-what?" Her façade slipped and her face filled with a mix of apprehension and confusion.

I continued happily, "If you hadn't thrown that rememberall then I wouldn't have gotten on the Gryffindor Quidditch team." Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Oh yeah, seeker. And if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have found out what I am and I would've still been stuck in first year with you."

"Wh-what?"

"I'm the Xiaolin Dragon of fire, so I'm skipping first year to have the same timetable as the rest of them." She blinked rapidly and I turned around smirking. "It was a good day." I remarked to the others as the two Slytherins stalked back towards their own table.

* * *

Maria and I sat in the common room, before the fire, Maria doing homework for tomorrow whilst I wrote home to papa about my eventful first day. Professor McGonagall approached, holding a parcel and a sheet of parchment. "Here is your new timetable, Miss Tohomiko and your Xiaolin robes." I took them from her gratefully and looked at the timetable. Xiaolin training three nights a week - except Wednesday, for quidditch practice, and Friday. I noticed that my first lesson tomorrow would be Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall and then double potions with Professor Snape, the hook nosed, greasy haired teacher from the feast, before a final Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson and my first Xiaolin training session. The parcel contained a red robe with a blue-black sash around the waist and black around the wrists, hem and neckline; a pair of knee length white leggings and black pumps with knee high ties. I could already see myself in it. I knew something about Hogwarts felt right.

* * *

The next morning, after parting ways with Maria at breakfast, I found myself walking with Clay and Omi to Transfiguration. Raimundo was there too but I was ignoring him in preparation for study sessions and it looked like he had the same idea. When we got there, we parted ways, the boys to the back of the classroom and I skipped to a free seat near the front. The tall girl in front of me turned towards me, her blonde shoulder length curls bouncing as she did. "Hi. You're Kimiko Tohomiko, aren't you?" I nodded and she cocked her head to the side, curious. "Why are you in this class? Aren't you a year younger?" I shrugged.

"Well, yeah, but it turns out that I'm the personification of fire and so I've been moved up a year so I can have the same timetables as those three." I jerked my head towards the back of the classroom where the three, oh-so-great protectors of the world were leaning their chairs against the wall and joking around with Aidan. Ok, well Raimundo was. Clay and Omi weren't swinging in their chairs but they were still messing around. The girl smiled widely.

"I'm Keiko and this," she indicated a red haired girl on her left, "is Neko." Neko nodded at me with a smile which I returned. "And this is Sishi." She indicated the brunette girl on my left who frowned before speaking up.

"But how are you going to keep up with the work without learning first year stuff?"

"Raimundo has to tutor me." I sat back in my chair, frowning with my arms crossed. Her eyes lit up.

"I heard how you told him off yesterday. Congratulations on that by the way, it must've taken a lot for him to be intimidated by you. He isn't intimidated by anyone and he towers over you."

"Sishi's known him since they were small." Keiko added, still facing backwards in her seat. "Her twin brother's his best friend."

"Aidan." I stated, suddenly realising. "That's why you looked familiar."

"Yep," she popped the p, leaning her elbow on her desk and her head on her fist. "Identical twins. Everyone is stumped as to how we ended up different genders." At this point the conversation was cut short by the entrance of Professor McGonagall, who started the lesson teaching us to transform animals into water goblets. At least I now had friends in my year.

* * *

The dungeons were cold and dark where potions lessons were held. My impression of Snape's dislike for me proved correct as he began to quiz me almost as soon as I sat down.

"What is the difference between Monkswood and Wolfsbane?"

"It is the same plant, also goes by the name Aconite." He snarled before continuing.

"Where would you look if I asked you to bring me a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a goat." I answered without skipping a beat.

"What would you get if you added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"

"A sleeping potion so powerful, it is known as the Draught of the Living Death."

He straightened up, crossing his arms across his chest, slowly. "Miss Tohomiko, I understand that you have recently discovered that you are a Xiaolin Dragon but that does not mean that you can use your powers of mind manipulation in my classroom. Now-" I cut him off, leaning forward to look at the guys.

"Can we really do that? Read minds?" They nodded, smirking at Snape's obvious annoyance. "Sir, that wasn't what I was doing, I simply have a good memory." He growled before stalking back to the front of the classroom to begin the lesson.

"Nice one Kimiko." Neko muttered under her breath and I grinned. Well, if I have to make an enemy of a teacher, at least I can do it on my own terms.

* * *

Defence Against the Dark Arts class went well if you ignore the fact that Quirrel still seemed afraid of me. Oh well, the man's so jumpy he is probably terrified of his own shadow! After dinner, I went back to the dormitories to change into my robes for my first Xiaolin training session. This was what I had been looking forward to all day. Once changed, I met up with the others in the common room and they led me out into the corridor and showed me where the training would take place with Maria calling 'good luck' after me.

On the way through the Entrance Hall, we came across a group of second year Slytherins who the guys were apparently familiar with. One, a pale boy whose skin tone was heightened by his flaming red hair smirked at them. "I see you boys have found yourselves a girlfriend. What did you have to do confound her? Shame, even confounded you can only find one between the three of you." They all rolled their eyes at him; seems he was always like this.

"Shove off, Spicer." Raimundo commented flatly, apparently bored of him already. He directed his comments towards me instead.

"Hey baby, why don't you ditch the dork squad and come have a good time with us?" I scoffed at them.

"A good time? With you? I wasn't aware Slytherins knew how to have a good time; what with all the time they spend looking after themselves and poking their greasy, pointy noses in other peoples' business." They looked shocked, sexist pigs. "And besides, if anyone around here is a dork, it's you." I walked up to him and stage whispered behind my hand. "You might want to ditch the goggles before you go around calling others dorks." And with that, I stalked out of the castle, a prominent smirk on my face.

I learnt a lot at my first training session. I learnt everything that a Xiaolin Dragon can do: the mind manipulation thing I heard about earlier – we can hear others' thoughts and project ours into others' heads, search through others' memories and thoughts as well as putting up barriers to prevent others from searching through our heads; we have heightened senses – mainly sight and hearing; and heightened strength and speed; we aren't human but the personification of our element – our parents and any children we have will be human; we can heal any injury we get – such as broken bones or cuts – and we will stop aging once the eldest reaches the age of twenty – Clay will be forever twenty, Raimundo and Omi eighteen and I seventeen as Clay went to Hogwarts two years late as he was helping to look after his sick mother and sister, who made full recoveries. Also, in order to test my speed and strength, I sparred with the guys and we competed in trials and such. I was able to do them all easily as I am quite fit due to all the dancing I do and I was able to defeat Clay and Omi in elemental/hand to hand combat as I am quite devious but Raimundo and I were well matched and Master Fung had to declare it a draw so we could get to bed on time.

We were on our way up the great staircase when it decided that it would change. Why couldn't it just let us go to bed? Omi was the most shocked at the moving staircase – he is a bit of a wimp. Raimundo laughed at him. "Omi, surely this isn't the first time the stairs have moved on you? Heck, even the new girl isn't shocked and she's been here two days!"

"Don't call me that." I growled as the stairs came to a halt.

"Let's go," Omi began to head towards the door at which the stairs stopped. "Before the staircase moves again!" The door opened onto a long, dark corridor with large stone columns which usually hold flames to light up the corridor but was empty. However, as we approached it, they flickered to life.

"Kimiko!" Raimundo hissed, glaring at me.

"What! That wasn't me." Clay glanced around nervously.

"Does anyone get the feeling that we're not supposed to be here?"

"We're _not_ supposed to be here." I remarked, realising where we were. "This is the third floor, it's forbidden."

"Let's go." We turned to leave when we were blocked by a small, mewling figure at our feet.

"It's Filch's cat!" Mrs Norris was known for catching trouble makers and somehow calling Filch to the scene within seconds.

"Run!" We all turned and wordlessly followed Raimundo's command down the corridor until we reached a large door. Omi rattled the handle but it didn't budge.

"It's locked – we're done for!" I rolled my eyes at their stupidity; they've been studying magic for a whole year longer than I have.

"Oh, move over!" I shoved Omi out of the way and raised my wand to the handle. "Alohamora!" The door swung open and we all dove inside.

"Alohamora?" I heard Raimundo ask as he helped me off of the floor.

"Standard Book of Spells, Chapter 7."

"What do you do, swallow the books?" I narrowed my eyes at him but Clay interrupted before we could digress to arguing.

"This door was locked for a reason." The two of us spun to see Clay and Omi, eyes wide, faces pale, staring at a…three headed dog? The four of us turned and sprinted out of the room as the thing woke up, preferring to face Filch rather than this thing but he wasn't there and we ran all the way to the empty Gryffindor common room instead, collapsing into armchairs.

"What do they think they're doing?" Raimundo exclaimed angrily. "Keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?"

"You don't use your eyes do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?" I asked incredulously.

"No, I was a bit preoccupied with its heads! Or maybe you didn't notice – there were _**three**_!" He shot back, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"It was standing on a trapdoor, which means it wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something." They each raised an eyebrow.

"Guarding something?" I stood, brushing off my robes.

"That's right. Now, I'm going to bed before one of you comes up with another clever idea to get us killed," I narrowed my eyes at them. "Or worse, expelled."

I turned to do just that when I heard Raimundo's murmured "She needs to sort out her priorities." at which I spun round and shot back.

"I've had enough near-death experiences that I'd need at least another hand to count them on but I wouldn't want to let mama or my grandparents down, who sacrificed themselves to keep me safe so I could go here, by getting expelled within the first week of term." I raised an eyebrow, challenging him. "So, you tell me if my priorities are backwards." When he had no reply, I turned and headed to bed after a day that was equally as eventful as the last. Was every day to be like this at Hogwarts?


	7. Chapter 7

The days went by in pretty much the same way and before I knew it, it was Halloween already. Keiko, Neko, Sishi and I had become firm friends and I sat with them in most clases but in Charms, Professor Flitwick assigned us partners and guess who I was paired with? Raimundo. Neko and Sishi were lucky, they got to work with each other and Keiko worked with Aidan. They seemed to bicker too but not as often as Raimundo and I. Nor did she send fireballs at his head when he really got under her skin. That particular day, we were working on 'the art of levitation'. We had been working on the wand movement, 'swish and flick' for a while now and he finally thought we were ready to try it with feathers. A loud chorus of 'wingardium leviosa's echoed through the air. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Raimundo started stabbing his wand at the feather in front of him.

"Stop, stop, stop! You're going to put someone's eye out! And besides, you're saying it wrong." I could hear Keiko, a few tables over, correcting Aidan for the same thing. "It's Levi _o_ sa, not Levios _a."_

"You do it then, if you're so clever." He motioned with his hands, exasperatedly. "Go on!"

I raised my wand and swished it in the move we had been repeating for a week. "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather rose into the air and I turned to Raimundo, eyebrow raised with a smirk on my face. He turned away with a scowl on his, resting his chin on his arms on his books, sulking.

"Oh look everyone! Miss Tohomiko's done it!"

* * *

After the lesson, Neko and Sishi had to stay behind as they had blown up three feathers, and Keiko and I headed towards the Common Room as we had the afternoon off, due to it being Halloween. We were walking behind the group of Gryffindor second year boys when Aidan's voice floated back towards us. "It's _leviosa_ , not leviosa!" his voice dropped the cruel imitation of Keiko, back to his own. "She's a nightmare, honestly! It's a wonder she's got any friends!" I glanced at Keiko, praying that I only heard it with my inhuman hearing but one glance at her face, red and pinched, told me she had heard before she took off towards the bathrooms. I sprinted after her, making sure to knock into Aidan as I passed.

**Raimundo POV**

"I think she heard you." I remarked to Aidan who was rubbing his arm where Kimiko had intentionally, I suspect, nudged him on her way past. What he said was a little mean but to his credit, he did look upset and concerned that she had heard him.

That evening, at the Halloween feast, I noticed that neither Kimiko nor Keiko were there. "Where's Kimiko?" I asked the others but they simply shrugged.

Sishi turned to us. "She's in the girls' bathroom with Keiko. She's been in there all afternoon," she turned to glare at Aidan, "crying." Aidan looked uncomfortable and Sishi looked as if she was about to start ribbing him when Quirrel came running into the hall.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeon!" he screamed hysterically before swaying on the spot, "Thought you ought to know," and sinking to the floor in a dead faint.

The hall erupted into screams of terror at that and the students began running around like headless chickens – don't they know you must stay calm in a crisis? Clay, Omi and I were the only ones sitting calmly, assessing the situation and I suspect Kimiko would've too if she had been here. For all our fighting I can admit that she is pretty smart, both book and street, hell, she understands the first year stuff faster than I did, we're through half the year's course already and she somehow gets the stuff we're doing in class just as easily. Take today, for example. Fighting with her, someone who can match my remarks and shoot back witty and sharp comebacks equally fast, is just too much fun to resist but I admit, I let it get out of hand, trying to out-do her.

"Silence!" Master Fung's shout cut through the panic like a knife. The old man is always eerily calm. "Now," he continued; his voice back to its normal tone. "Everyone will please, not panic." A little too late for that. "Prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories; teachers will follow me to the dungeons.

The entirety of the students began to move towards the front doors of the hall. "Gryffindors, follow me, and stay alert!" I rolled my eyes as we continued on down the corridor. Pedro the Prefect, attempting to seem in control and authoritave, simply managed to sound pompous. He knows nothing about crisis situations. A troll sneaking into the school is the sort of scenario we train with/for in Xiaolin training. I wonder why Master Fung didn't ask us to come with the teachers…probably thinks we're too young. Anyway, Pedro knows nothing about crisis handling, if the troll came round this corner, he would probably faint, just as I know nothing about having a hard life, as Kimiko said. Sure I grew up with five older brothers and two younger siblings, a grand total of nine of us in a small house. Sure we didn't have excessive money. We had enough to live comfortably and my family life was pretty sheltered. None of us got seriously ill or were in any mortal danger at any point. We had a loving family upbringing – a lot more than many do – which I often take for granted. Kimiko, for example… Kimiko! I pulled Aidan with me behind the nearest pillar. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"The girls, they don't know about the troll!" He bit his lip nervously. Stupid human self-preservation instincts. "Come on." I turned and crept down the corridor to where I knew the girls' bathrooms were.

A loud thudding noise made us stop, and we hid behind another pillar. How many of those were in this place? The troll was rounding the corner and was now in our range of sight. It was huge; it had to practically stoop to walk through the corridors and it was bright red with a small tuft of red hair and a single eye. Great, so this troll was also Cyclops. He rounded the corner at the other end of the corridor and Aidan's face paled. "It's headed for…the girls' bathroom…" My blood ran cold. Kimiko could probably handle the troll in a fair fight but she had to protect Keiko at the same time, she couldn't do both and Keiko couldn't help, she was only human, if we could get there quickly enough, Kimiko and I could take care of the troll and whilst it was distracted with us, Aidan could get Keiko out of there. I glanced at Aidan who, face set, nodded and we rushed to the open bathroom door.

* * *

**Kimiko POV**

I sighed as Keiko once again, rushed back to the cubicle and locked it behind her. I had almost cheered her up when she caught sight of her reflection and her tear streaked face reminded her of his words all over again. I turned and leaned back against the door of the cubicle. Stupid boys, can't they think before they say anything, is it really that hard? "Come on, Keiko, just-" I trailed off, noticing the pair of giant red feet in front of me. I trailed my eyes upward and soon found myself staring into the eye of Cyclops, the one-eyed troll. I gulped in fear. How on earth was I supposed to take care of him and keep Keiko safe?

"Kimiko, what-" I heard her sharp intake of breath and a hand tug me inside the cubicle. Bad move, Keiko, no sudden movements! Cyclops seemed to agree with me as he roared and swung his fist at the row of cubicles, shattering the woodwork. I flung my hands in front of me, releasing a wall of fire to protect Keiko and myself from the flying debris as she flung herself to the floor with a scream. She crawled frantically towards the sinks which she then hid under as I walked backwards, not breaking eye contact with Cyclops nor releasing the fiery shield.

Footsteps rang out and soon, Raimundo and Aidan came crashing through the door. I never thought I'd be glad for Raimundo's arrival. He noticed me and my shield straight away and half smiled at my quick thinking. I quickly extended my shield around Aidan, dropping it from around myself in the process. I hadn't really used it much nor had I trained with my element much so two people was my limit and they, as the humans in the room, needed it most. Raimundo picked up a piece of broken pipe and threw it at Cyclops' head with a shout of "Oi, pea brain!" This brought his attention to the new arrivals and he turned to face them. Aidan came towards me and took my place in front of Keiko who looked as if she was going to faint and I took a running leap at Cyclops who caught my leg from his shoulder, holding me upside down in front of him, attempting to swing his fists at me but was stopped each time by an invisible force. I turned my head to see Raimundo with his hands raised. He must be manipulating the air around me and Cyclops' hand to prevent it from making contact with me. I fought to keep the shield around the cowering Keiko and Aidan who was still standing stock still, staring at Raimundo and I battling the Cyclops. Where are Clay and Omi when you need them?

"Do something!" I yelled at him, startling him out of his stupor.

"What?"

"Anything!" Raimundo yelled back at him, starting to show the strain of manipulating the air for extended periods of time. Aidan raised his wand.

"Swish and flick." Keiko managed to choke out. How fitting, the spell that got us into this mess will get us out.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" A piece of porcelain from one of the ruined toilets rose into the air. "Cool." He had a goofy grin on his face, as if it was the first time he had managed a spell. Then, due to his lapse in concentration, which was actually lucky for us, the debris dropped, landing on Cyclops' head.

He swayed on his feet, dropping me, though thankfully Raimundo caught me, and collapsed with a loud thud on the floor. As the dust settled, I let the fire shields drop and Raimundo let me down too. Keiko emerged from beneath the sinks, still as white as a sheet. "Is it…dead?"

"No, just knocked out." After I answered, we fell silent and many hurried footsteps could be heard approaching the bathroom. McGonagall entered the bathroom, emitting a shriek of shock at the sight of Cyclops on the floor and putting a hand to her heart.

"Explain yourselves." She demanded, Snape and Quirrel appearing behind her. I noticed that Snape's trouser leg was torn and his leg was oozing blood. He caught my stare and moved his cloak to cover his apparently injured leg.

"Well, the thing is-"

"It's my fault professor." McGonagall looked shocked at Keiko's admission, as were the rest of us to be honest. "I was in here rather than at the feast, Kimiko was trying to get me to come down and if Raimundo and Aidan hadn't arrived, and Kimiko and Raimundo hadn't fought the troll, I would probably be dead."

We all stood in silence until McGonagall spoke up again. "Well then, you three," she turned to us and we steeled ourselves, prepared for a lecture. "Five points will be awarded to each of you. Not many students can take on a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale." And with that, she swooped off and Quirrel ushered us out of the destroyed bathroom.

* * *

On the way back to the common room, Raimundo turned to Keiko. "It was good of you to get us out of trouble like that."

"Mind you, we did save her life!" Aidan interjected. I rolled my eyes. Boys!

"Mind you, she wouldn't have needed saving if you hadn't insulted her!" I shot back at him and I saw Keiko's emphatic nod and Raimundo's wry smile at my tone and Aidan's words shot back at him.

"I'm sorry about what I said, I was just kinda jealous." He admitted sheepishly. She smiled; protecting someone from a troll can erase small mistakes like that. I shot a smile at Raimundo, happy that our friends were getting along again and that, for once, we were too.

"I sort of wanted to call a…truce…of sorts. No more fighting?" He offered his hand and I shook it.

"Well, not completely. I think I would miss the friendly bickering too much." I admitted, earning me a smile. The four of us entered the common room, where the Gryffindors were continuing the feast, Keiko and Aidan chatting amicably and Raimundo and I laughing and joking, at which many eyebrows were raised.

"We have agreed to a truce!" Raimundo announced, bowing theatrically to his fellow students, and I followed his lead, giggling uncontrollably at his antics. "From the serious fighting anyway. Only friendly banter from now on guys."

"Yeah, fighting Cyclops together can bring you closer, somehow." The room cheered and Clay and Omi looked relieved that they would get a break from our constant arguing.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day dawned bright and dry, the day of our first quidditch match of the season. I was nervous. Exceedingly so. Even more so than when fighting Cyclops. My appetite for Hogwarts food suddenly failed.

"Come on Kimiko," Maria wheedled, "just one egg, you're going to need your strength."

"Good luck today, Miss Tohomiko," came an oily voice from behind me and Maria and I swivelled round while the boys raised their eyes to find Professor Snape standing behind us. "You too, Mister Pedrosa. After all, now that you've proven yourselves against a troll a little game of quidditch should be easy work for you. Even if it is against Slytherin." He stalked off but with an added limp.

"That explains the blood." I muttered under my breath, heard only by the boys in front of me.

"What blood?" I quickly sent the image to their heads and their eyes widened collectively. I imagine this would be a rather strange sight for Maria and Aidan, had they not taken the hint of our private conversation and started their own. "Listen," Raimundo began, leaning in further to ensure we weren't overheard. "Last night, I'm guessing Snape let the troll in as a diversion, so he could get past that three headed dog but he got himself bitten – that's why he's limping." He paused, a frown forming on his face. "The only thing I can't figure out is why he would go anywhere near that dog…" That sparked a thought in me.

"The day Hagrid and I were in Gringotts, he took something out of one of the vaults, said it was 'Hogwarts business – very secret'."

"So you're saying…" Clay began but Omi cut him off.

"That must be what that dog's guarding, what Snape wants."

* * *

Raimundo and I said our goodbyes to the others before entering the changing rooms and I sat through Wood's pre-match pep talk completely zoned out. By the time we picked up our brooms and stood waiting to fly out, I was feeling…well, quite a lot of things, really. This was it. My first quidditch match. I felt an inexplicable need to prove myself, to prove what I said at that first practice.

Wood seemed to pick up on my mood. I mean, you didn't need to be able to read minds to see that - I was practically bouncing with nervous anticipation. "Nervous?"

"A little." I admitted. "Mostly excited though."

"Felt exactly the same way before my first game."

"What happened?"

His face screwed up in concentration. "Uh…I don't really remember. I took a bludger to the head two minutes in. I woke up in hospital a week later."

I felt the blood slowly drain from my face. I can do this. I _can_ do this…can't I? Suddenly I wasn't so sure.

I heard Raimundo scoff from behind me. "Way to instil confidence, Wood." He stopped speaking then. Aloud, anyway. To keep the conversation private and to give the comfort that could only be experienced through our minds, he projected his thoughts into my head. "Don't worry, you'll do great. You fly well and you're not afraid to take risks – the same reasons I'm so good at quidditch!"

I threw a grateful smile over my shoulder as I giggled at his last comment. Although it had only been a day since the troll incident, Raimundo and I got on a lot better. The spiteful fighting gone, we could focus on the playful banter and how much we actually had in common, which is a lot, surprisingly.

Just then the door opened, filling the tunnel with light as we mounted our brooms and flew onto the pitch to the sounds of the majority of the assembled crowd cheering and the Pedrosa twins' friend Lee Jordan calling our names before beginning his commentary. "Welcome to the first quidditch match of the season: Slytherin vs. Gryffindor!"

The crowd's excitement was tangible as the game got underway. Slytherin was vicious and unafraid to break the rules. Fortunately that's all they were. Their players were neither as skilled nor as agile as ours, so we clearly had the upper hand from the moment the quaffle was released.

The match was going well. Raimundo, the best chaser – probably best flier – on the pitch, had just scored our fifth goal ("fifty points to zero for Gryffindor!"), when I felt it.

It began quite subtly, a jerking sensation – unnoticeable to anyone in the stands but it increased with time until my broom was rolling over and jerking frantically with me desperately on.

People began to notice as I struggled to control my bucking broomstick. The twins attempted to pull me onto their brooms but when anyone came near enough to do so, the broom shot a few feet into the air. They eventually stopped when I was so high that I couldn't make out individuals in the stands, instead circling below, hoping to catch me and shorten my fall which was rapidly becoming inevitable.

That is, if my broom continued its current erratic movements.

* * *

**Normal POV**

The crowd's attention was slowly drawn from the quaffle's movements and quickly turned to the small scarlet clad figure whose broomstick was exhibiting rather strange behaviour and rising steadily.

Suddenly the broom gave a large jolt and Kimiko was left dangling from it by a single hand.

Neko and Sishi were white; Neko muttering under her breath, covering her eyes while Sishi peered at Kimiko through the binoculars she had swiped from Aidan. Aidan was staring in shock at the scarlet blur now swinging from her broom. Keiko was clutching at his arm tightly, knuckles turning white. Omi stood stock still, jaw agape while Clay watched, an anxious look in his eyes, all the while sending thoughts to his friends in the air; to Kimiko – thoughts of encouragement and to Raimundo, muttering darkly, "If she falls you'd better catch her, or I swear to God…" He saw Raimundo nod grimly as he heard him (through his thoughts) half focusing on the match and half on Kimiko.

"I don't get it…" Aidan had finally regained the ability to speak.

Keiko turned to him, eyes blazing. "What's not to get?" she asked scathingly. "Kimiko's up there, dangling from her broomstick!"

"I mean that I don't get the broom's behaviour! It shouldn't be acting like that, especially not here…"

"You don't say!" Keiko bit back, voice dripping with sarcasm. Aidan was about to retort but was beaten to it by Sishi.

"He's right – only really powerful or dark magic could do that." She indicated the still jerking broomstick.

Keiko's eyes widened and she snatched the binoculars from Sishi, ignoring her protests. However, she wasn't focusing on Kimiko. "There, look!" She cried out, pulling the binoculars from her face and passing them to Aidan while pointing at the staff's stand. "It's Snape, he's jinxing the broom!"

Aidan pulled the binoculars to his eyes, swiping at Neko and Sishi's hands as they made a grab for them and Clay and Omi turned their inhuman vision in the same direction. There was Professor Snape, his eyes unblinking, staring fixedly at Kimiko and muttering under his breath. "Jinxing the broom! What do we do?"

"Leave it to me." And with that Keiko turned and sprinted towards the staff stands.

"Come on Keiko." They all softly murmured as they saw Kimiko's broom give a particularly nasty jolt.

Keiko ran swiftly towards the staff stands through the underside and came to a stop directly behind Snape's seat. Muttering an incantation under her breath, small flames were projected onto the hem of his robes.

She stayed only long enough to hear that the fire had been discovered and to see the entire staff flung to the floor as he pranced around in an attempt to put it out before fleeing, stopping at the edge of the pitch to catch the end of the match.

* * *

**Kimiko POV**

The broom suddenly stilled and I swung myself back on and turned sharply to chase after the Slytherin seeker who had just caught sight of the snitch. If my broom hadn't started bucking this game would be over by now!

Soon we were neck and neck and he kept jostling me, undoubtedly trying to both intimidate me and use the only advantage he had – his larger size. The snitch plunged to the ground and we both went into a pretty steep dive. He kept glancing at me, growing increasingly nervous with each glance as we approached the ground at a rapid pace. I merely bent lower over the handle of my broomstick, grinning, as he panicked and pulled out of the dive. I pulled up shortly after too but only level with the ground, about a foot above it - I still had a snitch to catch, after all! I stood up on my broom to gain better access and leant forwards, tipping the broom and sending me somersaulting to the ground.

I stood up and felt myself gagging and then the golden snitch fell out, right into my hands! I did it! We had won! The rest of the team flew down to congratulate me as I heard the pitch explode in thunderous applause.

* * *

Some time later, the four of us were walking through the grounds on our weekly visit to Hagrid. Clay and Omi had just finished informing Raimundo and I of what had happened on the ground whilst we were airborne.

"Nonsense!" Hagrid scoffed once they had finished. "Why would Snape put a curse on Kimiko's broom!"

"Who knows?" I retorted. "Why did he try to get past that three-headed-dog yesterday?"

"Who told you about Fluffy?" Hagrid narrowed his eyes in suspicion. I merely blinked.

"Fluffy." Raimundo deadpanned. "That _thing_ has a name!"

"'Course he does, he's mine! Bought his off a feller down in the pub. Then I lent him to Master Fung to guard the-"

"Yes?" I prompted, giving him my best innocent look.

"I shouldn't have said that! No more questions! That's top secret, that is!"

Damn. I heard Raimundo's voice in my head – "Nice try but no dice."

"But whatever it is, Snape's trying to steal it!" Omi cut in.

"Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher-" Hagrid began again but Clay cut him off.

"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a jinx when I see one. You've got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking!"

"Now, you four, listen to me." Hagrid's voice dropped and his tone became more serious. "You're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. It's between Master Fung and Master Monk Guan!"

"Aha!" The rest of us rolled our eyes at Raimundo's antics. "So there's someone called 'Master Monk Guan' involved!"

Hagrid looked stricken and ambled off muttering "I should _**not**_ have said that!" repeatedly under his breath.

While this name – Master Monk Guan – gave us a clue as to the contents of that trapdoor, it only led to more questions. "Who is Master Monk Guan? I know I've heard that name somewhere." Raimundo asked – to no one in particular – as we trudged back to the castle.


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of term flew by – with the four of us searching in the library for this 'Master Monk Guan'. Raimundo was growing more frustrated by the day. "I know I've read that name somewhere!" he would lament every night as we approached the Great Hall for dinner.

Soon it was the start of the Christmas holidays and the four of us were playing a game of Wizard's chess before Clay and Omi left with the other students heading home for the holidays. Clay and I weren't so bad at it, Raimundo was better but Omi was clearly the best and this time – to keep it quick – rather than playing a tournament, it was Raimundo and Clay against Omi and I. I grinned as our queen just took their knight. In a few short moves the game was over and Clay and Omi left, leaving Raimundo and I alone in the Gryffindor Common Room – the only others staying were the rest of the Pedrosa boys and they were elsewhere (Fernando and Jorje wreaking havoc and Pedro 'overseeing' the departing students). "I see you haven't packed." Raimundo remarked.

"I see you haven't either." He shrugged.

"My parents decided to visit Carlos in Romania. Maria missed him a lot, so she left but the rest of us decided to stay." I nodded and we began another game.

Christmas morning came and I was woken by Raimundo's voice shouting in my head. "Come on, wake up! It's Christmas!" I pulled on my slippers and dressing gown before sprinting down the stairs.

At the bottom, I saw Raimundo sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire, near the Christmas tree which had a pile of presents under it. We exchanged 'Merry Christmas's before I noticed his attire. "What are you wearing?"

He glanced down, picking at the jumper. It was a bright emerald green – matching his eyes – with the letter 'R' knitted into it with paler green wool. "Oh, this? It's a Pedrosa jumper. Mum makes them for us every Christmas. It looks like she made you one too." He indicated a lumpy parcel under the tree with my name written on it.

I jumped forward like a small child again. No one but papa had ever bought me presents before. I opened the lumpy parcel to find a beautiful sapphire jumper with a 'K' in almost the exact same colour of my eyes. I wonder how she knew? I put it on immediately – it felt as good as it looked. There was also a card with a stick figure family of brunettes and a small black haired one beside them and 'Merry Christmas' written on the front in the uneven handwriting of a small child. The signature on the inside confirmed my suspicions that it was from Alejandro, the youngest Pedrosa. Raimundo read it over my shoulder with a bemused sort of smile on his face. "Al never does this sort of thing, he really must like you." I smiled as I looked at the small stick figure holding hands with the stick figure representation of me – he was adorable.

The next was from papa and some sort of cloak fell out of it along with a note. "'This used to belong to your mother and was passed down in her family for generations. It's your turn – use it well.'" I glanced quizzically at Raimundo.

"Go on, then." He urged. "Try it on." I did and I watched Raimundo's jaw drop open. "Woah! I know what that is – it's an invisibility cloak! They're really rare." I glanced down and saw what he meant. My body was gone!

At that moment the twins entered the common room, both wearing their Pedrosa jumpers – orange with lime green letters 'F' and 'R'. They took one look at my disembodied head and screamed. When they got over the shock, Fernando mock swooned into Ricardo's arms and joined in with mine and Raimundo's laughter. I swung the cloak off my shoulders and they stared at it in awe.

Pedro came down the stairs then, blinking back sleep from behind his glasses. "What's all that noise?"

"Pedro!" the twins exclaimed in unison. Ricardo dragged him further into the common room and Fernando pulled the jumper out from under his arm. "Oh, look – 'P' for prefect!" and despite his protests, pulled it over his head.

That was the best Christmas I had ever had, despite papa's absence. The five of us hung out all day in our jumpers and jeans – playing chess, eating Hogwarts' delicious Christmas dinner and we had an epic snowball fight – which I won as any snowballs which got within a foot of me promptly melted. "Cheater!" Raimundo would pout in mock upset at which I would stick out my tongue and run, squealing, as he chased me throughout the grounds while his brothers watched, smirking.

* * *

Raimundo and I decided to explore the castle, testing out my invisibility cloak. It was large enough to hide both of us and we soon found ourselves in a room with a large gilded mirror with writing on it. "'I show not your face but your heart's desire.'" I recited. Raimundo shot me a questioning look. "It's backwards. You know, mirror writing."

We stepped out of the cloak and I approached the mirror first. Tears sprung to my eyes and I touched my fingertips to the faces in the glass. "Mama? Grandmamma? Grandpapa?"

After a moment, Raimundo stepped up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder. The images of my family disappeared and I shot him a teary smile before stepping aside to let him look. As I wiped away my tears I noticed his expression: wide eyes and gaping jaw. "What do you see?"

He turned towards me, startled, his cheeks turning rather pink. "Oh! Uh…" But he was saved from answering by Master Fung's voice coming from behind us.

"I see your curiosity has led to your discovery of the delights of the mirror of Erised." We nodded, curious about the mirror. "Well, people have wasted away in front of it." I knew exactly what he was talking about; coming back repeatedly to see your dream was far easier than going out and accomplishing it and many would take the easy way out. "Which is why it will be moved tomorrow and I must ask you not to go looking for it." We nodded and began our journey back to the common room.

"So, what did you see in the mirror?" He wouldn't meet my eyes and the blush returned. He started up a conversation about training instead. I tried to see through his memories but he blocked me out.

"You won't find my secrets so easily, Kimiko." Damn him.


	10. Chapter 10

Months passed and the homework began to pile up as the exams approached. We were sitting in the common room, studying. At least, Clay and I were. I'm not entirely sure what Omi was doing but Raimundo was playing with his stupid Chocolate Frog cards. He began to sort through them again and I snapped. "We've got final exams coming up soon and what do you do? Play with your cards!"

"I'm ready!" He leant back and crossed his arms, a smirk on his face. "Ask me any question."

"What are the three most crucial ingredients in a forgetfulness potion?"

His face fell. "I forgot."

"And what, may I ask, do you plan to do if this comes up on the exam?"

"Copy off you?"

"No you won't!" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Besides; according to Professor McGonagall, we're to be given special quills, bewitched with an anti-cheating spell."

Raimundo looked affronted. "That's insulting! It's as if they don't trust us!" I raised an eyebrow at Clay, both of us thinking the same thing, 'You just admitted you were going to cheat.' Idiot.

"They must've found out about you cheating last year."

"Ugh, Master Fung again!" He threw his cards down on the table, sulking.

Then, Aidan came hopping into the common room. Yes, hopping, as if his legs were stuck together. "Spicer." We all muttered under our breath.

"You have got to start standing up to people, Aidan!" Raimundo sighed in exasperation.

"How?" he cried out, wobbling. "I can barely stand at all!"

But Raimundo was no longer listening; he was staring at one of the cards in his hands. "I've found him! Look!" With a gasp, all of our attention was on him. "Master Fung is most well known for – bla, bla, bla – and his work on alchemy with his partner – _Master Monk Guan!_ "

I sat bolt upright – of course! "Follow me!" The four of us packed up our stuff and left at top speed.

"Hey!" Aidan yelled after us. "What about the counter-curse?" I quickly performed it over my shoulder as the Fat Lady swung shut.

* * *

I arrived back at the table I left them at in the library with the large book in hand, thoroughly annoyed with myself. "I had us looking in the wrong section, how could I be so _stupid!_?" I threw the book down on the table, startling the others. "I checked this out _weeks_ ago for a bit of light reading."

"This," Raimundo began sceptically, eyeing the large volume. "is light?"

I shot him a scathing glare before returning to my search. "Of course, here it is: 'Master Monk Guan is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!'"

"The what?"

"Oh, honestly, don't you read? 'The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It can transform any metal into pure gold and produces the elixir of life, which will make the drinker immortal.'"

"Immortal?"

"It means you'll never die."

"I know what it means!" Raimundo snapped back. It seemed to be escalating into a proper fight, the likes of which we hadn't had in ages but Clay cut us off with a 'sh'. "That's gotta be what's under that trapdoor. This 'Philosopher's Stone'!"

* * *

The four of us arrived outside Hagrid's after everyone else had gone to bed. Hagrid swung open the door. "Oh, hello. Sorry, don't mean to be rude but I'm in no fit state to entertain today."

He shut the door again and as he did so we chorused, "We know about the Philosopher's Stone."

The door swung open once again. "Oh."

The hut was extremely hot. It didn't bother me, in fact I loved it but the others didn't seem to be coping as well as me. We took our cloaks off but under that we were still wearing jumpers and jeans due to the cool night air. Omi started off our conversation. "We think Snape's trying to steal it."

"Snape? Blimey, you're not still on about him, are you?"

"We know he's after the stone, we just don't know why." Raimundo cut in this time.

"Snape's one of the teachers protecting the stone, he's not about to steal it!"

"What?" Clay's words applied to all of us. None of us had any clue. Unless…

"You heard me. Right, come on now, I'm a bit preoccupied today." Hagrid seemed really edgy; he didn't seem to want us here which was a complete 180 from his usual behaviour.

"Wait a minute – one of the teachers?"

"Of course!" I cut in over Raimundo. "There are other things protecting the stone – spells, enchantments…"

"That's right." Hagrid nodded, ticking them off on his fingers. "Master Fung, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrel, Professor Snape, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout all did something. Waste of bloody time if you ask me. No one's gonna get past Fluffy, not a soul knows how – except for me and Master Fung." He stopped and turned to the fireplace where something was moving about inside a cauldron. "I should not have told you that."

He turned towards the table and placed some sort of sphere on it. "Uh, Hagrid? What exactly is that?" Clay asked, voicing what was on everyone's mind.

"I know what that is!" Raimundo exclaimed. Okay, not _everyone_. "But Hagrid, where did you get one?"

"I won it, off a feller down the pub. Seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact."

The sphere shattered and the four of us lifted our hands instinctively to shield our faces. On the table sat some sort of small, leathery-looking creature. I thought back to the first day I met Hagrid. "Is that…a _dragon_?"

"That's not just a dragon. That's a Norwegian Ridgeback." Raimundo surprisingly was the one to answer. "Carlos works with these in Romania." He offered by way of an explanation.

The four of us sat in utter disbelief for the rest of that visit. Hagrid was treating the dragon the way a mother would treat a newborn child. He seemed to have forgotten that he lived in a _wooden house_. And that dragons breathe fire…

Suddenly something caught Hagrid's eye. "Who's that?" As we turned, we saw two figures sprinting back up to the castle.

"Spicer." Raimundo spat venomously.

"And Ashley." I added, in much the same tone of voice.

"Oh dear."


	11. Chapter 11

We walked back up to the castle in a rather subdued state of mind, discussing quietly about Hagrid and the dragon he christened as Norbert. We all knew that owning a dragon was a dream come true for Hagrid but it was illegal and none of us wanted to think of how much trouble Hagrid was in if Jack Spicer and Ashley Maris knew about Norbert.

We felt the presence of three others in front of us and we stopped, looking up hesitantly. "Good evening." Professor McGonagall stood before us in a flannel dressing gown, hair up in a hairnet, with a candle in hand and a stern look on her face. Slightly behind her were the smirking faces of Jack and Ashley.

"Nothing," Professor McGonagall started once we were in her office as we stood before her desk. "I repeat, nothing, gives a student the right to walk about at night. As punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken," 'Fifty!' was the thought running through all of our heads by now. "Each." If we weren't gaping before, we were now. 200 points! From her own house! "And to ensure it does not happen again, all six of you will receive detention."

Ashley's smirk faltered. "Excuse me, professor." She stepped forward, face smug. "Perhaps I heard you wrong – I thought you just said 'the six of us'."

"No, you heard me correctly, Miss Maris." Ashley's smirk was gone now, she should know by now that McGonagall is nothing but fair. "Honourable though your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention." Raimundo and I turned to smirk at each other while Jack and Ashley glared at the four of us. At least something good came out of this!

* * *

About a week later, at breakfast, we received notes informing us that we would do our detention tonight at eleven o'clock. It was ironic that our detention for being out of bed after hours caused us to be out of bed after hours. But that's just the way Hogwarts is. Utterly mad. We had contacted Carlos, Raimundo's second eldest brother and some of his friends came and took Norbert with them as they went to visit him in Romania.

We met in the entrance hall that night and Filch led us down to Hagrid's. We were all glad that we had decided to wear jumpers over our uniforms and our cloaks over that – the four of us wore our Pedrosa jumpers; Raimundo and I, the ones we got this year and Clay and Omi, last years – as we were spending our detention in the forest.

Hagrid, with Fang at his side, led us deeper into the forest, coming to a stop when he found a pool of some sort of silvery substance on the floor of the forest. "What's that?" came Ashley's snobbish voice from behind us. The two Slytherins had kept to themselves for most of the night, muttering about how unfair this detention was and how we should be writing lines. Please, even muggle schools stopped doing that!

"That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in here that's been hurt badly by something. It's the second time this week. I found one dead last week so we're going to try and find the poor thing – though we might have to put it out of its misery."

"What if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" We all rolled our eyes at that. God, were all Slytherins such babies, or was it just Spicer?

"There's nothing that lives in this forest that will harm you if you're with me or Fang. Right, now, we're gonna split into two parties and follow the trail in different directions." Hagrid indicated to the blood, which was all over the place. The poor unicorn must've been hurt really badly, and a good while ago, too. I'd guess it's been staggering around for at least 24 hours.

"I want Fang." Jack put in immediately. Idiot. Doesn't he know not to judge something by its appearance?

"All right." Jack smirked, obviously believing that we all want Fang, the cowardly boarhound to come with us. Yeah…right… "But I warn you – he's a ruddy coward."

Omi had the misfortune of going with the Slytherins and Fang one way whilst Raimundo, Clay and I went the other with Hagrid. We were under instructions to send up green sparks if we found the unicorn and red sparks if we found trouble. Or, as is more frequent in my life, trouble found us.

We met a few centaurs along the way but couldn't get anything useful out of them, only that Mars was especially bright – whatever that meant – despite Hagrid's requests for information a little closer to home.

Red sparks erupted into the air somewhere to our right and Hagrid took off, leaving the three of us with almost identical expressions of anxiety. "What if it's Omi?"

The looks on the others' faces told me they were thinking along the same lines. "Then there's nothing to worry about." Clay's gentle words didn't have quite the calming effect I'm sure he meant them to.

"Omi can take care of himself." Raimundo assured me, his face breaking into a grin. "It's Spicer and Ashley you should be worried about – they'd be running screaming like headless chickens."

I relaxed at that as my face split into a wide smile to match his. "Well, I'm not worried about them. It's their own fault they're in here. Maybe this will teach them to mind their own business."

Raimundo snorted. "Not likely."

I shrugged. "Oh well. A girl can dream."

Hagrid came back at that point, Fang at his heels and a sheepish Omi and two sniggering Slytherins behind him. From what I gathered, Jack and Ashley had crept up on Omi – hoping to scare him – who had panicked and sent up the sparks. "We'll be lucky to catch anything now with the racket you three were making! Right, we're changing groups. Omi, you come with us. Kimiko, with Fang and these idiots." Raimundo shot me a pitying glance as I headed in the opposite direction. "I'm sorry, but they'll have a hard time frightening you and we gotta get this done." Hagrid added in an undertone as I passed him.

Jack and Ashley were worse than Fang, jumping every time a twig snapped and the wind whistled through the leaves. I was ready to snap at them if they did it _one more time_ when my instincts told me to stop and look to my right. I did so, holding out an arm to stop the skittish Slytherins. When they looked as if they were about to protest, I put my finger to my lips and nodded towards the clearing my instincts had led us to.

The unicorn was lying prone on the forest floor and as we approached, a hooded figure stooped down before the unicorn and began to drink its blood.

The limited courage of my three companions failed and they turned and ran, Fang barking and the Slytherins emitting high-pitched screams as they went. I knew I should probably send up sparks – either colour would be appropriate – but my scar began to burn. It wasn't the worst pain I had ever faced but it was enough to bring me to my hands and knees, so I did the one thing I was still capable of – shot flames into the air in my Xiaolin emergency signal.

The pain increased as I could vaguely see the cloaked figure approach, its hood still up and the silvery unicorn blood dripping down its front. I heard something leap over my head and run at the figure who turned and fled. The pain eased and my vision cleared. I saw my saviour to be a centaur, but none of those I had met earlier.

I approached the unicorn and bent to examine it as the centaur was doing beside me. It was dead. "Who could do such a thing to such a beautiful creature?"

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure and defenceless to save yourself that you will have a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

"But who'd be that desperate?"

"Unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else… Do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment, Miss Tohomiko?"

"The Philosopher's Stone!" I breathed, not even acknowledging that I was even famous amongst centaurs, who proclaim to have no interest in human affairs.

"And can you think of no one who has waited for many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"

I thought back to something Hagrid had told me once, when I asked what had happened after the second attempt on my life – 'some say she died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if she had enough human left in her to die.' I gulped, suddenly cold. "Do you mean that _that"_ I indicated where the figure had disappeared, "was Wu-"

I was cut off by the arrival of the others. Raimundo, Clay and Omi were before me in a flash, panic on their faces which disappeared when they noticed I was uninjured. Raimundo's eyes narrowed and he remained concerned, he always was more tuned in to my emotions than the others were and could probably sense my fear from the conversation with the centaur.

"Well," Hagrid said, after conversing with the centaur, approaching the unicorn. "Now that we've found the unicorn, we'd better get you six back up to the castle."

* * *

Back in the common room, I was pacing before the fire after recounting my story to the others. Omi was the first to speak. "You mean, You-Know-Who's out there, _right now_ , in the forest?"

I nodded, still pacing. "But she's weak, living off the unicorns. Don't you see? We had it wrong!"

"Snape doesn't want the stone for himself, he wants it for Wuya." I nodded grimly. "With the Elixir of Life, Wuya will be strong again. She'll…" Raimundo trailed off, a horrified look entering his eyes as realisation struck.

"She'll come back." I finished quietly, sitting down and staring into the fire.

"You don't think she'll try to kill you again," Raimundo asked hesitantly, "do you?"

I met his worried eyes and spoke grimly. "I think if she'd had the chance, she might have tried to kill me tonight."

Raimundo swallowed fearfully. "And to think, I've been worried about my potions final!" but even his weak attempt at humour couldn't cheer either of us up.

"Hold on a minute. We're forgetting one thing." All eyes turned to Clay, our voice of reason. "Who's the one wizard Wuya's always feared?"

Raimundo and Omi shrugged. "Master Fung." I admitted quietly.

"Exactly." Clay reassured. "As long as he's around, you're safe."


	12. Chapter 12

The exams drew nearer and nearer and before I knew it, I was walking out of my first, Charms theory. I was walking with the guys as, though it was a bigger deal for me as they are my first exams, I have a better memory than Keiko, Neko, Sishi or Aidan and so, I allowed myself some time off before studying for Transfiguration tomorrow. Clay seemed to be having a similar idea, Omi was having one of his fits of arrogance where he believed himself to be superior to something such as studying but I wasn't worried as I knew he would panic later and study like mad. Raimundo on the other hand, was being, well…Raimundo. Slacking off, as per usual. We were lounging in the large tree by the lake – the one we would do sit-ups in for training – when I caught sight of Hagrid sitting on his front step, enjoying the first nice day this year.

I was about to suggest we go and talk to him when it hit me. "Oh no!" I leapt from the tree in panic.

"What is it?" Raimundo looked up, well, down, from where he had been lounging beside me.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd, that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and then a stranger turns up and just happens to have one?" I could see them slowly coming to the same realisation I had. "I mean, if they're illegal, how many people would wander around with dragon eggs in their pockets!" We took off sprinting towards Hagrid's hut and I began to give him the third degree before he had the chance to manage a 'hello'. "Hagrid, who gave you the dragon egg? What did he look like?"

"I dunno. I never saw his face – he kept his hood up." Seeing our expressions, he added, "It's not that odd. You meet many strange folk in the Hog's Head pub."

"This stranger though, you and he must've talked." Raimundo asked frantically as we nodded eagerly.

"Well, he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after, but I told him, 'after Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem'."

"Did – did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Clay forced out, the four of us on tender hooks.

"Well, of course he was interested in Fluffy! How often do you come across a three-headed-dog, even if you're in the trade?" He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "But I told him, I said, 'the trick with any beast is to know how to calm him. Take Fluffy, for example: play him a bit of music and he falls straight to sleep!'" We exchanged panicked glances as one of his own blossomed across Hagrid's face. "I shouldn't have told you that. Where are you going? Wait!" He called after us, for we had bolted – Raimundo and I in the lead as we used our elements to spur us on, on top of our inhuman speed – headed for Master Fung's office.

We reached the office but it wouldn't let us in. "Dang it!" Clay exclaimed and I stared. I had never seen him mad before.

"What are you four doing here?" Professor McGonagall was approaching us, a large pile of books in her hands. She was probably about to start on us about how we should be studying for her exam tomorrow but Raimundo spoke before she could.

"We have to see Master Fung – immediately!"

"I'm afraid he is not here." No! We stared at her in despair. "He received an urgent owl from the ministry and left straight away."

"He's gone? Now?" Raimundo asked, despairingly. "But this is important!"

Ugh, he was just going to aggravate her! I cut him off and dropped the volume of my voice. "This is about…The Philosopher's Stone!"

The books came tumbling out of her arms. "How did you know?"

"Someone's going to try to steal it!" Raimundo tried desperately to convince her, completely ignoring her question, but to no avail.

"I don't know how you four found out about the Stone, but I assure you, it is perfectly well protected." She summoned her fallen books and marched off.

"That was no stranger Hagrid met," I began as we turned to form a huddle of sorts.

"It was Snape, which means he knows how to get past Fluffy." Raimundo finished my line of thought for me.

"And with Master Fung gone-"

"Good afternoon." Came a voice from over our shoulders and we turned to face Snape. "Now what would four young Gryffindors, such as yourselves, be doing inside on a day like this?" He paused for our answer but, receiving none, continued. "You want to be careful. People will think you're up to something." He too swooped off.

"Now what do we do?" Clay asked, him and Omi turning to Raimundo and me, the main masterminds behind everything we had done thus far.

"It's obvious isn't it?" I asked, glancing from face to face and only seeing understanding on Raimundo's.

"We go through the trapdoor." He spoke confidently.

"Tonight." I verified, exchanging nervous but excited glances with Raimundo. Time to put our training to the test.

* * *

We met in the common room well after our room mates were sleeping, dressed in our Xiaolin robes. We figured it was appropriate. I carried the invisibility cloak down with me and we started to set out, quietly, when we saw a very familiar toad on the armrest of one of the fireside armchairs. "Trevor. Go! You shouldn't be here." Raimundo hissed at him.

"And neither should you." Aidan stood up from the armchair. Damn. We should've checked if we could sense anyone in the common room before going down. Heck, the boys should've checked everyone was in their beds before coming down. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you!" Aidan accused us.

"Aidan, listen-" We figured it was best to let Raimundo talk to him as he knew him best, but even that wasn't helping.

"No! I won't let you! You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again!" He raised his fists half heartedly with a weak, "I-I'll fight you…" He knew that we could overpower him with our little fingers.

I stepped up, pulling my wand from the sleeve of my robe. "Aidan, I'm _really_ sorry about this, Petrificus Totalus." His limbs sprung together and he fell to the floor, stiff as a board.

Raimundo gulped from beside me. "You know, you're a little scary sometimes." He confided as I put my wand away. "Brilliant! But scary…" He glanced back at Aidan's motionless form. Well, apart from his eyes and his breathing.

We stepped over him on our way to the portrait hole. "Sorry Aidan." I murmured.

"It's for your own good, you know." Raimundo muttered as he left. Aidan would understand when he knew what we were doing. I hope.

* * *

We arrived at the third floor corridor under the cloak and stopped just outside Fluffy's door. "Wait. We have to play him music." Damn, we forgot about that. "Any ideas?"

"Well, uh…I'm a decent singer…" I offered, unsure whether it would work.

"That'll work!" Raimundo chirped brightly, hiding his nerves as we unlocked the door and stepped inside, shedding the cloak.

Fluffy stood up and bared his teeth at us menacingly. I noticed that there was a harp in the corner. I pointed this out to the others. "Damn, Snape's already here." Raimundo muttered, keeping one eye on Fluffy. "Well, go on. Start singing."

I was suddenly, irrationally nervous. I'd never sang in front of anyone before. 'Don't be stupid!' I told myself. After all, it wasn't as if anyone would be judging me on my voice, as long as I got Fluffy to sleep. I closed my eyes and chose one of my favourite muggle songs.

" _I always needed time on my own_

_I never thought I'd_

_Need you there when I cried_

_And the days feel like years_

_When I'm alone_

_And the bed where you lie_

_Is made up on your side_

_When you walk away_

_I count the steps that you take_

_Do you see how much I need you right now?"_

Fluffy fell asleep within the first few lines and I turned to face the others who were staring at Raimundo, who was staring at me with a rather dazed look on his face. Omi and Clay exchanged knowing looks which only confused me further before nudging Raimundo out of it and starting towards the trapdoor.

They wrenched it open and jumped in one by one, with me coming last so I could continue singing.

The landing was soft, contrary to the hard floor I had been suspecting. Why were they making it easier for the thieves? I glanced down. Oh…

"Lucky this plant thing's here, really." Raimundo, who had jumped first, mused.

"Lucky?" I scoffed, jumping to my feet. "Look at yourselves!"

They glanced down and finally noticed the tendrils wrapping themselves around their limbs. "Of course!" Exclaimed Clay, who was best at Herbology. "Devil's Snare."

I nodded in agreement. "How do you kill it, Clay?"

"Uh…well, it likes the dark and damp…"

"Right." I quickly set my hands and feet alight and the plant promptly dropped us the few remaining feet to the floor. "Everyone alright?" I asked worriedly, watching them rubbing their wrists. They nodded and we proceeded around the corner.

As we were walking, I turned to Raimundo. "What was with you staring at me earlier?"

"Oh, uh, it was n-nothing. Just…you call that a decent voice?" He stuttered, blushing once again.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'd call it a pretty damn amazing voice." It was my turn to blush and we almost ran into Clay and Omi who had stopped.

We were in a room with hundreds of winged keys flitting through the air and a few old broomsticks propped up against the wall. The others headed towards the door and tried to open it, Raimundo using the Alohamora charm I had taught him, but the door remained resolutely shut. He groaned in frustration. "What are we going to do? There must be a thousand keys up there!"

Clay studied the handle. "We're looking for a big old-fashioned one. Probably silver like the handle."

"Right there." I located the one immediately and indicated it with my hand. I wasn't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing! "The one with the broken wing." As I said it, I realised the implications. We were still a step behind.

Raimundo and I glanced at each other before heading towards the brooms, quickly mounting and launching ourselves into the air, employing many of the flying techniques Wood had us learn in training. We allowed ourselves to have some fun as Raimundo marshalled the unwanted keys from obscuring my line of vision as I closed in on and caught the right key. I threw it down to Clay who opened the door, allowing Raimundo and I to fly through it, laughing for what would probably be the last time that night.


	13. Chapter 13

The next room was large and had two equally large sets of stone figures placed in two rows, facing each other across the room. "Where are we? Some sort of graveyard?" Clay speculated as we approached one of the sets of stone figures.

"This is no graveyard." Omi spoke up as he walked into the centre, between the two sets of figures. "It's a chess board." As he said this, the torches around the room flickered to life, revealing it to be just that.

"There's the door." Clay spoke up and headed towards the door behind the white pieces. Raimundo and I stayed put. It couldn't be that simple. And it wasn't. As Clay and Omi neared the front row of white pawns, they pulled out their swords and blocked off the passage to the door. Clay and Omi backed off pretty quickly after that. "Well, now what?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Omi glanced around calculative, for once as confident as he always tried to show himself to be. "We play our way across the room. Kimiko, you be the Queen-Side-Castle, Raimundo, Clay, the Bishops. As for me, I'll be a Knight." We headed towards the squares as the named players moved off the board and a Knight dismounted his horse for Omi. We could all hear Omi muttering to himself, "White moves first and then, we play."

"Omi," Clay began hesitantly as the White Pawn moved. "You don't suppose this is going to be like real wizard's chess?"

Omi seemed to deliberate silently before sending our Pawn diagonally from the whites, to test whether or not it would be smashed or simply put to the side. The White Pawn brutally smashed it with a swift flick of its swords. "Most defiantly, Clay." Omi stated, face set.

Omi directed the game, keeping us pretty level with the whites. The White Queen had just taken our other Queen-Side-Castle when Raimundo and I noticed it.

"Wait a minute…" He glanced about, panic growing.

"You two understand, right? Once I make my move, the Queen will take me. And that leaves Raimundo free to take the King."

"Come on, Omi, there must be another way!"

"Do you want to stop Snape from getting that Stone, or not?" Omi glared at us, taking a deep breath before continuing. "It isn't me who needs to go on." He admitted, which I new was a hard thing for him and Raimundo knew it too, made obvious by the stunned look on his face when Omi admitted it. "Nor Clay. It's the two of you. I can feel it in my tiger instincts."

I glanced at Raimundo. We all knew that Omi's tiger instincts were right 99.99% of the time. We nodded reluctantly.

Omi steeled himself. "Knight to H3."

His horse moved to the indicated square and stopped. "Check." He murmured, glancing at the White King.

The White Queen began to move towards Omi, but in the tense atmosphere and our apprehension, she seemed to move in slow motion. She moved forward, square by square, slowly but surely and soon enough, she was right before Omi. His breath was laboured in fear while the rest of us held ours. The Queen lifted her sword and plunged it into Omi's horse's side and we watched, in perfect clarity in our inhuman vision, as Omi fell to the ground with a terrible cry and landed hard on the floor, out cold.

Raimundo made his way towards the other side of the board and stood before the White King. "Checkmate." He announced in a loud, clear voice. The King threw his crown at his feet, signalling the end of the game.

The three of us made a mad dash for Omi. Thankfully he was unhurt, simply unconscious.

Raimundo, Clay and I headed through the door behind the white pieces and found ourselves faced with another troll. This one, however, was out cold with a large lump on its head. We cringed at the smell and hurriedly passed through the door on the other side.

Purple flames immediately sprung up in the doorway that we had just passed through and black ones in the opposite doorway. There was a row of potions before us and a roll of parchment which Clay promptly snatched up and read, a smile forming on his face. Apparently it was a puzzle, of sorts – his favourite kind and within a minute he had isolated the nettled wine, poisons and the two potions for getting through the flames on either doorway.

"Well," Raimundo eyed the potion to get us through the black flames. "There's only enough for one person here." He locked eyes with Clay who looked resigned but still worried. "Here," he handed Clay the potion to get through the purple flames. "Take this, bring Omi to the Hospital Wing and send an owl to Master Fung. Omi's right." He glanced at me. "We have to go on."

"But, like you said. There's only enough for one person in each bottle."

Raimundo raised a brow at Clay. "Kimiko doesn't need one. The fire won't harm her."

"Just be careful." We nodded as Clay took his potion and vanished through the purple flames.

"So, we've had Hagrid's three-headed-dog, Professor Sprout's Devil's Snare, Professor Flitwick's charmed keys, Professor McGonagall's transfigured chess set, Professor Snape's potions and what I'm assuming is Professor Quirrel's troll." I mused as Raimundo swallowed his potion and we passed through the black flames. "That leaves whatever Master Fung did behind this door."

* * *

It was a large cavernous room and as we descended the steps, we stopped near the bottom in shock. At the other end of the room, was Professor Quirrel.

"You? No. It can't be… Snape. He-he was the one…" Raimundo spluttered beside me.

Quirrel smiled, a sinister smile, and he spoke, for the first time since I met him, without a stutter. "Yes. He does seem the type doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around the place like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor s-stuttering Professor Quirrel?" So it had all been an act? Wow, it must've been annoying to have to keep that up. And to think, the lesson I'd been most looking forward to ruined by a faked speech impediment put on my an evil mastermind. Shame.

Raimundo was still trying to wrap his head around this. "But, that day, during the quidditch match, Snape tried to kill Kimiko."

Quirrel shook his head, still smiling that creepy smile. "No, no, dear boy. _I_ tried to kill her! And trust me, if Snape's cloak hadn't caught fire and broken my eye contact, I would have succeeded! Even with Snape muttering his little counter-curse." Wait a minute! Hold the phone! Snape was trying to… _save_ me?

"No," I cut off Quirrel's bitter rant. "You wouldn't have."

"Oh, believe me," Quirrel sneered. "A few more seconds and you would've been off that broom!"

"Sure, off the broom," I conceded. "But not dead."

"How-"

Raimundo caught my drift and continued my explanation, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Oh, but I control the wind and with a flick of my wrist, I could've – and would've – caught her. Or any of the remaining six members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team would've flown to catch her."

"No matter," Quirrel sneered, regaining his composure. "What a waste of time though. After all you've been through, I'm going to kill you tonight." He clicked his fingers and out of thin air, some sort of thick, vine-like ropes appeared and twisted themselves around Raimundo and I, pinning us against the wall. "And you too, Mister Pedrosa, you're far too nosy to live. Scurrying around the school at Halloween, like that!" He sniffed disdainfully.

"Th-then you let the troll in…"

Quirrel seemed to realise he hadn't gagged us and quickly remedied that. Damn, these vine-rope-things taste horrible!

"Very good!" He cooed patronisingly. "Snape, unfortunately, wasn't fooled. While everyone else was running around the dungeons, he went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again. He rarely left me alone after that. But he doesn't understand. I'm never alone." He seemed almost afraid for a moment before he resumed his earlier manner. "Now…what does this mirror do?"

I realised with a jolt that he was standing before the Mirror of Erised! Trust Master Fung to come up with an idea such as this!

"I see what I desire. I see myself holding the stone, presenting it to my master… But how do I get it?"

A horrible raspy voice came out of nowhere. "Use the girl…"

My eyes went wide and I could see Raimundo's doing the same. Quirrel clicked his fingers and the rope things dragged me like a rag-doll towards him and dropped me at his feet. He yanked me to mine and shoved me in front of the mirror. I could hear Raimundo growling in my head. I turned my focus to the mirror and gaped at the image. I saw myself – God, I looked awful – and the mirror-me put her hand in the pocket of her robes and pulled out a ruby red stone. She winked and replaced it in her pocket and I felt it drop into my own. My eyes widened further. Now, if I could only get away…

"What is it? What do you see?" Quirrel demanded. Must lie…

"I-I…we've won the Quidditch Cup."

Quirrel seemed to but it…until… "She lies!" in that same disembodied raspy voice.

"Tell the truth! What do you see?" I fished about for another lie when the voice spoke again.

"Let me speak to her…face to face…"

Quirrel definitely looked scared this time. "But, you are not strong enough-"

"I have strength enough…for this…"

Quirrel turned away from me and reached up to unwrap his ever present turban. I risked a glance at Raimundo who looked just as confused until Quirrel lifted the turban completely and we both looked horrified.

There was a face in the back of Quirrel's head!

This face had green eyes, but not the friendly sort the Pedrosas had. These were cold and hard. The face looked like some sort of mask, pure white with red around the eyes. "Kimiko Tohomiko…we meet again…"

"Wuya…" I breathed, horrified. Somehow, I knew exactly who she was.

"See what I have become?" She hissed at me. Obviously she blames me. "Mere shadow and vapour…Unicorn blood has strengthened me but once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Now…why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

She knew! I turned, fully intending to flee when a shriek of "Stop her!" and the resulting click of Quirrel's fingers caused a wall of fire to erupt around the edges of the room.

I was about to continue running, after all, the fire couldn't hurt me, but I remembered Raimundo, still bound and gagged in the corner. I couldn't leave him. I heard him screaming in my head. "No! Kimiko, go! Forget about me, go!" and I could see his eyes pleading with me but I just couldn't. Of course, they assumed I was unable to go through the fire.

"Don't be a fool!" Wuya hissed and I noticed that her eyes turned yellow with green swirls when she was angry. "Better save your own life and join me…"

"Never!" I spat.

She continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Your grandparents died begging for mercy…"

"You liar!"

"Seize her!"

Quirrel leapt at me, hand outstretched and pinned me to the ground, his hand around my neck. I tried to wrench it off and he jumped back, nursing his hand to his chest, which had turned red and raw. Wuya continued to scream "Seize her! Seize her!" And Quirrel continued to try but his hands blistered and eventually crumbled under a heat I wasn't giving out. He screamed and fell to the floor, a pile of ash.

Raimundo dropped to the floor also, the binds having disappeared with Quirrel. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." He muttered as I helped him up. "You?"

I nodded and pulled the stone out of my pocket. "I wonder…"

"How you got it?" He guessed and I nodded. "One of Master Fung's crazy ideas, no doubt."

I smiled weakly. I was absolutely exhausted. Raimundo's smile wiped off of his face. "Kimiko, look out!"

I turned around to follow his line of sight and saw the face of Wuya, now without a body. She was some sort of purple shadowy vapour, like she had said, with tentacle-like hair and two arms. With a snarl she threw herself at me, completely passing through me, but it was too much for my already exhausted body and I crumpled to the floor, the Stone falling from my limp fingers repeated screams of my name the last thing I heard before it all went black.


	14. Chapter 14

Everything went from completely black to completely white. I never did understand why hospitals are always white. Master Fung was sitting beside me and I sat up, groggily. "Where – how – oh no, Master Fung, the Stone!"

But he merely laughed. "Relax, dear girl, or Madame Pomfrey will have my head!" That was when I realised where I was, the hospital wing, with piles of sweets all around my bed. "Quirrel does not have the Stone – it has been destroyed."

"Destroyed? But what about your friend - Master Monk Guan?"

He looked pleased. "You know about Guan, do you? Well, the four of you did do this properly – I'm proud of you."

Memories came flooding back at that. "Oh, Omi! Is he alright? What about Raimundo? And Clay?"

"They're fine." He placated. "They'll be very pleased to know you're awake – they've been quite worried. Especially Raimundo. You gave him quite a fright, collapsing in front of him like that. He was inconsolable for the first few days. It's a wonder he passed his exams."

"How long have I been in here?"

"About a week. Yes, you've missed all of your exams but you should be out in a few days. Just in time for the quidditch final!" he added with a wink.

"But…how did I get the Stone?"

"Ah, you see, only one who wanted to find the Stone – find it, but not use it – would be able to get it. Otherwise, they would see themselves using it. That is one of my more brilliant ideas and, between you and me – that is saying something!"

After some of my best persuasion tactics, Madame Pomfrey let Raimundo, Clay and Omi in to see me. At first they were babbling happily, before I calmed them down enough for Clay to tell me what happened. He told me how he was on his way to send an owl to Master Fung when he suddenly appeared behind him – in that creepy way he does – said 'they've gone after him, haven't they?' and ran off.

We chatted for ages, eating some of my 'tokens from admirers', as Master Fung put it, before they had to go.

Hagrid was next to visit after the girls, who filled me in on the castle gossip – the main gossip being the events with the Stone, of which I told them the true story. He took one look at me and burst into tears – it was rather disconcerting – and spent a good five minutes blaming himself through his sobs before he calmed down enough to listen to reason. After I screamed 'Wuya' at him, almost giving him a heart attack, but that's not the point. He then handed me a book shaped parcel. "I meant to give you this for your birthday but it took a little longer than I expected.

I opened it to see a photo album full of wizard photographs – some of my grandparents, mama at school with her three friends – who, funnily enough, were boys too – and even a few of me and the guys from this year. I came to a page with two photographs on it – one of papa and a pregnant mama, smiling with their arms around each other, talking to mama's pregnant stomach – that is, me – and the other was of me as a baby with my grandparents. It must've been the last photograph taken of them. I traced my finger over my lost family's smiles. "Thank you."

After I got out of the hospital wing, at quidditch practice, I could tell that the rest of the team was unsure if I would be up to par. That is, until I got into the air. I had no problem slipping right back into flying and Wood was ecstatic. "Nothing could prevent us from winning the cup this year!" he would exclaim excitedly. Well, almost nothing.

* * *

**Raimundo POV**

I headed towards the quidditch pitch for the final. I hadn't seen Kimiko this morning which was a bit odd but I figured she had gone down to the pitch early. She had been really afraid to let the team down – not that that was possible. She was the best flier I had ever seen!

We sat through Wood's pre-match talk but Kimiko still hadn't shown and as we walked along the tunnel to the pitch, I began to get the feeling that something was wrong.

We got to the pitch and were met by Professor McGonagall. "This match has been cancelled." The rest of the team immediately began protesting but my heart sunk. Something was _seriously_ wrong if they were cancelling the quidditch final. "Mister Pedrosa, you had better come with me." I followed, wracking my brain to try to figure out what I had supposedly done. Clay and Omi ran over to see what was going on. "You two had better come too." We shared utterly bewildered glances. What was going on?

We came to a stop outside the girls' bathroom on the second floor where many teachers, including Master Fung, were gathered. "What on Earth is going on?" I directed my question to Master Fung as he was most likely to answer me but he merely sighed heavily and stepped aside. This revealed a message on the wall, written in blood, the large writing spelling 'her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever'. It sunk in that Kimiko was the only one of us not present. No…please, no…

"Who is it?" I'm not sure whether it was Clay or Omi who spoke up; I was focused on Master Fung's face. He looked grave.

"No…" My voice was hoarse. "No, it can't be…"

"Check for yourself." He said, his face still grave and with a hint of pity in his voice. I could feel Clay and Omi's stares as they waited with bated breath. I was always best at the mind things, well, until Kimiko came along. With her face in my mind, I closed my eyes and focused, locating the life force in the blood and comparing it with my memory. I slowly opened my eyes, looking round at everyone's faces.

I nodded slowly. "It's Kimiko's."


	15. Chapter 15

I sat in the Gryffindor Common Room that afternoon, rethinking everything that had happened since I saw that writing on the wall. We had gone up to Master Fung's office and he told us the legend of the Chamber of Secrets; a secret chamber built by Salazar Slytherin, housing a monster and can only be opened by Slytherin's heir who will unleash the monster and purge the school of muggle-borns who, according to Slytherin, are unworthy to study magic. He also told us how it was opened fifty years ago and Hagrid was accused of opening it, which is why he was expelled.

We eventually decided to visit Hagrid, both to have something to do and for the possibility that he might know something about the chamber, after all, it was opened when he was at school.

"Hagrid," I began tentatively when we sat down in his hut with tea. After all, this was our only chance to find Kimiko and bring her back. She couldn't be…no. "We know about…well, you being expelled for opening the chamber." A hurt look flashed across his face, clearly thinking we had turned against him. "But we don't believe that you did!" I amended quickly. "We just…do you know anything about the chamber?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. Just that one girl died last time." Hagrid looked apologetic, and then his face slowly lit up. "Wait…I suppose I could…" He jumped up and grabbed his crossbow, the same one he brought when we were looking for the unicorn. "Follow me. I know someone who might know a bit more then me."

We followed Hagrid out the door and into the forest, he seemed to know the way but I also noticed that we were following the trail of spiders that were scuttling deeper into the forest.

As we got further in the spiders got larger and larger until we were at a huge web strung over some sort of cave or hollow. Clay, Omi and I hung back, slightly apprehensive, as Hagrid stepped towards the web calling, "Aragog!"

A huge spider – oh, what's the name again…never mind – crawled out of the cave and approached, stopping just before Hagrid. Its eyes were milky so I guessed it was blind. "Hagrid?" It asked in a low, gravelly voice. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me and I brought some friends. They have a few questions for you." Aragog looked slightly offended at the idea of someone coming to question him and I guess Hagrid noticed too, for he quickly added, "Their friend has been taken into the chamber, see, and they – well me too, actually – were hoping you had some information about the chamber that could help."

"But the chamber was opened fifty years ago."

"Yes, but it seems to have been reopened." My ability to speak had finally returned after the shock of seeing this giant spider speak so civilly to Hagrid. "What do you remember about then?"

"I do not know much more than Hagrid. I know that they discovered Hagrid was keeping me in the castle and assumed that because of what I am, it must be me harming the students. But Hagrid protected me and brought me to the forest when they blamed me for that girl's death."

"So," I searched for words while Clay and Omi stood silent behind me. I knew that if I uttered one wrong word I would be toast and this could very well be Kimiko's only chance. "You never…attacked…anyone?"

"Never!" He hissed, seemingly offended once more. "It would have been my instinct, but from respect for Hagrid, I never harmed a human." Hagrid beamed at the old spider and I realised just how deep their friendship ran. "The body of that girl was discovered in a bathroom but I never saw any part of the castle but my cupboard."

"But then…do you know what _did_ kill her?"

"The thing that lives in the castle is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others. Well do I remember how I pleaded with Hagrid to let me go when I sensed it moving around the school."

"But what is it?" I was getting quite impatient now, the longer we waited, the slimmer Kimiko's chances.

"We do not speak of it!" He hissed and we all took a step back, even Hagrid, who seemed shocked at the extent of Aragog's fear of this creature.

"Uh…thank you very much." Clay managed to stutter out.

"Yes, we will be going now." Omi added starting to back away swiftly with Clay close behind him.

I could hear Aragog scowling in his mind at having to let us go but his face remained clear. It seemed that had Hagrid not been there, he would've gladly eaten us.

After saying goodbye to Hagrid, we walked back across the, discussing possibilities for this creature. "Right. So, we know that it was associated with Slytherin house, terrifies spiders, can kill and petrify and Hagrid also mentioned something about the school roosters being killed last time…" I trailed off, still having absolutely no idea what this creature was. Clay, on the other hand, seemed to have figured it out for he gasped, his eyes widening comically.

"That's it!" and he scurried off towards the library with Omi and I in close pursuit. Once there, he led us to the section in magical creatures and lifted an old book from the shelf, flicked through it until he found the page he was looking for. "I knew it! Listen: ' _Of the many beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.'_ And if the girl was killed in a bathroom, maybe it was using the plumbing to get around, that would explain why no one noticed a huge snake around the castle."

It all fitted. The spiders were terrified of it for it was their mortal enemy. The roosters were killed last time to prevent them from killing the Basilisk. The stare kills, so the reflection may petrify. And the serpent was the symbol of Slytherin house and this one is considered the king of serpents. And Clay's idea about the pipes was certainly plausible.

"Hold on," I said slowly, bits and pieces of a conversation with the girls coming to mind. "Aragog said that the girl died in a bathroom…what if she never left?"

They stared blankly at me. "Uh…what?"

"Something the girls told me once. That bathroom on the second floor, the one beside the wall with the writing?" We all swallowed at the mention of that writing, written in our teammate's blood. "Well, it's haunted by the ghost of a student – Moaning Myrtle."

"You don't think it's her…do you?"

"Well," I said standing up as Clay put the book back. "It's worth a try. The entrance to the chamber may well be in that bathroom. It's too much of a coincidence!"

We decided against going there straight away, in case we were caught. During dinner, we slipped away early and into Master Fung's office to get the Tongue of Saiping from the vault. After all, it was highly likely that we would need to speak Parseltongue – snake language – to enter the chamber and since none of us were a Parselmouth, it was the next best thing.

After that, we decided to wait until everyone else was asleep, just as we had with the Stone, but this time, with only three people and without the invisibility cloak as we were afraid of someone waking up and getting caught in the girls' dormitory. We once again wore our Xiaolin robes as the material was strong and loose enough to allow us to move and fight freely.

We made our way quietly down to the second floor girls' bathroom and with a glance at the wall for a renewed sense of purpose, we crept inside. There was the ghost of a girl floating around the bathroom, sniffling and wailing under her breath. 'I guess this is Moaning Myrtle.' I thought to myself as we stood, wondering how to obtain her attention. She was – or would've been…? – a few years older than us with dark black hair in long pigtails, glasses, and still wearing her Hogwarts robes bearing the crest of Ravenclaw on them.

She turned and finally noticed us, floating down to our eye level and glaring suspiciously at us. "Who are you? And why are you here? Boys shouldn't be in the _girls' bathroom_!"

"We're here to, uh, ask you…how you died." I informed her, searching for a better way of putting it but when I couldn't, I decided being blunt was best.

"Ooh!" She squealed and I could've sworn she blushed. It was as if I had paid her the highest compliment, which I suppose it probably is for a ghost. "It was dreadful!" Her tone belied her words and I suppose it was rare for her to sound this cheery if her name is 'Moaning Myrtle'. "It happened right here, in this very cubicle." She announced, floating happily to the cubicle nearest the circular row of sinks. "I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny – a different language, I think – and then I realised that it was a _boy_ speaking. So, I opened the door to tell him to go and use his own toilet," I snickered at that and saw Myrtle swelling importantly, face growing excited so I suspected she was nearing the end of her tale. "And then, I d _ied_."

"How?" Clay asked, eager to know if his theory was correct.

"No idea. I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes over there, by that sink." She indicated a sink directly across from us and I approached it, turning it on to test it, but nothing happened. "Oh, it's never worked."

We glanced at each other, satisfied as we noticed a small snake engraved on the side of the tap, positioned so that it formed an 'S'. Omi lifted the Tongue of Saiping to his mouth and spoke into it, what I assume was something like 'open'. The sink began to move, first moving towards us slightly before sinking into the ground, revealing a large, gaping hole behind the circular row of sinks. Myrtle stared as without so much as a thought to my personal safety, I jumped down the hole. Well, if it was a dead end or something went wrong, I could just fly back up. And I couldn't not go, not if there was even the faintest chance that Kimiko was still alive.


	16. Chapter 16

I heard Clay and Omi drop down to the floor behind me as I studied my surroundings. It was some sort of tunnel, miles under the school, under the lake probably, with dark slimy walls. We lit our wands and started along the tunnel which was lined with the skeletons of tiny animals, most likely the Basilisk's leftovers. The tunnel broadened out and we saw a bright green snake skin, at least twenty foot long, lying across the floor. "Raimundo," Clay began tentatively. Clay never spoke like that. I swivelled round to face him, concerned at what he might say. "Maybe…maybe we need to consider the fact that she may be…that we can't…" He trailed off uncomfortably as Omi nodded beside him. I shook my head in disbelief. They were giving up on her?

"No."

"Come on; look at the size of that thing." He indicated the snake skin but I continued to shake my head. Kimiko was just as strong, if not stronger than any of us. She would've kept fighting, not given up like they are.

"No, I won't leave her, not while she still has a chance." He looked like he was about to argue that so I quickly spoke again. "She _is_ still alive, I can feel it! Can't you?" I was honestly surprised that they didn't seem to be able to, the feeling was so strong inside me.

Clay sighed and spoke again in a softer tone, trying to clam and comfort me. "Raimundo, I think we need to accept the fact that we've done as much as we can. Come on back now, it's not safe down here."

The anger that had been building up inside me exploded when he said that it wasn't safe. That was exactly why I was trying to get Kimiko out of here – it wasn't safe. "Fine then, you go back! But I'm nor abandoning her – she wouldn't abandon us! I can save her – I _can_ and I _will_!"

"But Raimundo-"

"NO!" I roared, furious at them now. Why were they so adamant to leave her? Why couldn't they just believe me! She _is_ alive – I can feel it!

My voice was so loud and the walls so unsteady that the tunnel began to cave in. I ran towards the snake skin as large boulders fell towards the ground.

When the dust finally settled, I lifted my head to see a wall of fallen boulders with Clay and Omi nowhere in sight. "Clay? Omi?" I called out worriedly. I didn't want to lose them, especially after having a fight.

"We're over here. Behind the rocks."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Right, I'll keep going and you start shifting those boulders Clay, Omi you help him, so that there's room for me and Kimiko to get back through. See you later."

"Raimundo, wait!" I could hear them both calling after me as I ran but with a little help from my element, I was soon out of even my hearing range. I soon found myself in front of what looked like the door to some sort of vault. It was round and had four snakes emerging from the hinges, spreading across the door with their heads keeping it locked. Damn, Omi still had the Tongue of Saiping. They were probably hoping that when I realised I didn't have it, I would turn back and give up. No way. I'm not leaving until I've found her. Alive or- No, no…alive, she's still alive.

Luckily, I have a good memory – though, not quite as good as Kimiko's, at least where school work is concerned. I mimicked the hissing noise Omi had made earlier with the Tongue of Saiping and watched as a fifth snake emerged from the hinges and slithered its way around the edge of the door, causing the heads of the others to draw back, releasing the locks. The large doorway swung open and I quickly stepped inside, getting faster as I went.

I found myself in a vast chamber, presumably the Chamber of Secrets as it had a walkway, flanked by rearing serpents, leading to a huge bust of who I assumed to be Salazar Slytherin. As I glanced around the chamber, I noticed a figure waiting in the shadow of the statue's beard with some sort of glowing lantern at its feet. There was a stream of a golden misty substance trailing into it and I followed it back to its source – a small figure in Hogwarts robes at the base of the statue – Kimiko!

I sprinted towards her, collapsing to my knees and feeling for her life force. It was still there! But it was slowly ebbing as the golden light left her body. I turned to where I had seen the figure in the shadows before and saw amber eyes watching me. "What have you done to her?" I demanded, my voice icy.

"Oh, she is simply helping me with a little something." He stated airily, coming out of the shadows. I recognised him now – Chase Young; feared only second to Wuya.

"And what might that be?"

He smirked. "Since she foiled Wuya's return to power through the Philosopher's Stone, she is helping me to raise Wuya again." Seeing my eyes narrow, he added nonchalantly. "By donating her chi – life force, if you will."

My hands clenched into fists at my side and I summoned the power of the wind around me. I flicked a finger, causing the lantern to fly into the wall and shatter. Kimiko's 'chi' stopped draining from her and that which had been in the lantern rose into the air, condensing into a ball. I wrapped the air around it and drew it back into Kimiko. As the last particle re-entered her body, Kimiko's eyes fluttered open and she sat up. I grinned in relief and offered a hand to help her up, both of us turning to face Chase Young. "No matter." He sneered. "I _will_ get your chi to regain Wuya to her body using the piece of her spirit encased in this diary." He held up an old leather-bound diary as he continued to speak. "This just makes it a challenge – more fun this way."

"Why do you want Wuya back so badly anyway? With her out of the way you're the most feared wizard."

"Oh, but some days I get lonely with out my wife…" Mine and Kimiko's eyes widened at that. "Yes…anyway, together we're unbeatable – the most powerful witch and wizard of this age!"

"Sorry, but that position is filled." Kimiko scoffed, speaking for the first time. Chase Young raised a brow so Kimiko elaborated. "Master Fung is the most powerful wizard of this age."

Chase Young laughed, a cold laugh, sending shivers down my spine. "Master Fung will be driven off at the mere thought of the two of us together again."

"He'll never be gone." I began and Kimiko finished for me.

"Not while there are those who are still loyal to him."

There was a flash of light and Dojo landed on the floor with a thump, the sorting hat next to him. "What – where – " Dojo started before he caught sight of Chase Young, emitted a high-pitched scream and collapsed to the floor in a dead faint.

Chase Young laughed that laugh again. "So this is what the old man sends his great defenders. A cowardly gecko and an old hat." If Dojo had been awake he would not have liked that. The first time I met him, I called him a gecko and he grew to his full size and reprimanded me in a stern voice. But, then I got to know him and realised what a scaredy cat he really is. I've never been scared of him since. "Let's match the powers of Chase Young, heir of Salazar Slytherin, against two of the great Xiaolin Dragons." He turned to the statue and began to hiss again.

"Parseltongue." I whispered at Kimiko's confused expression.

The mouth of the statue opened, jaw dropping, and I had to prevent mine from doing the same at the sight of what came out of it. "Don't look – it's a Basilisk!" I whispered urgently and saw Kimiko's eyes widen before they turned and resolutely stared at me. From the glimpse I had gotten, I could see that it was huge and swallowed in fear. How were we supposed to fight something which we couldn't look at?

Kimiko had an idea, I could tell, as her eyes took on a determined glint and before I could stop her, she turned to face the Basilisk. Her hands shot out, flames flying from her fingertips and I heard the resounding scream of agony from the Basilisk and Chase Young's cry of fury.

She was still facing the Basilisk, but she wasn't dead. I was beginning to wonder if she was immune to death when I realised her plan. She had shot the flames into the Basilisk's eyes, burning the retinas and blinding the serpent – rendering its eyes useless.

Chase Young was still screaming in Parseltongue, presumably instructions as to our whereabouts, so I flung myself at him. He turned at the last minute, his form flickered and he turned into some…lizard-man…thing... – whoa! – blocking my attack and we began twisting and turning, landing hits and narrowly avoiding them.

This left Kimiko to fight the, now blind, Basilisk who, without Chase Young's instructions, had to resort to its sense of smell. I knew Kimiko could take care of it, she was strong. She could beat the King of Serpents…easy…


	17. Chapter 17

**Kimiko POV**

Okay. So, I had just woken up to find myself…well, I had no idea where I was to be quite honest. There was a man, apparently named Chase Young, who Dojo was terrified of and he could apparently turn into a lizard-man, and a Basilisk. Raimundo was currently fighting the lizard-man, so that left me the Basilisk. At least I had thought to blind him first.

Why Dojo had appeared, I had no idea – he wasn't much help – but perhaps it was to bring the sorting hat, which was a lot more help. I ran to it, stepping over Dojo's limp body in the process. I remembered something Master Fung had told us in training – 'help is always given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it' – and rammed it on my head, thinking 'help'. The hat obviously got my message for, a second later, something heavy slammed on my head. I pulled the hat from my head and sent a quick healing spell at the rapidly forming lump. Looking into the hat, I saw a sword, hilt lined with glittering rubies and marked with the name 'Godric Gryffindor'. 'Wow!' I thought to myself. 'I just pulled Gryffindor's sword from the sorting hat – this will be useful!' A grin spread across my face.

I twirled around to face the Basilisk, armed with my martial arts, element and now a sword. I continued to dodge and weave around the Basilisk's blind attacks, eventually climbing to the head of the statue. I waited for the Basilisk to come near enough before leaping, landing on the Basilisk's head and plunging the sword into its skull.

Raimundo and the lizard-man had ceased fighting to stare at me in shock. Smirking, I reached into the Basilisk's mouth and ripped out one of its venomous fangs.

I'm not entirely sure why I did what I did next, I followed my instinct. Maybe it was because I remembered hearing Chase Young saying that a part of Wuya's spirit was encased inside the diary. For whatever reason, I grabbed the discarded diary and pulled it towards me. "What are you doing?" came the voice of Chase Young, decidedly more anxious now, verging on panicked. I plunged the fang into the diary, hoping the venom would work on the piece of Wuya's soul inside and, judging by the ink spreading from the diary like blood and Chase Young's scream of "No!"

"This isn't the last you'll see of me, Raimundo Pedrosa!" He snarled before vanishing.

Raimundo rushed to me and pulled me into a tight embrace, the reality of the last few minutes sinking in. "Oh, you're alright! You're alive! I knew you were but they didn't believe me!" I cut off his babble with a swift punch to the arm. "Ow! Girl, you hit hard!"

I giggled in response and kissed him on the cheek, at which he blushed. "Thank you for coming after me, even if the others gave up."

"I-I…uh…n-no problem…" He managed and I giggled again before heading to revive Dojo.

We left the chamber; me with the sword in hand and Dojo snaked about my shoulders and Raimundo carrying the destroyed diary and the sorting hat. "So, now the two most powerful dark wizards have personal vendettas against us." I remarked.

"Yeah, that should be fun!" Raimundo added sarcastically and we rounded the corner, still laughing, to see Clay and Omi, sitting amongst many boulders, staring at us, dumbfounded.

"K-Kimiko?" I grinned at them and they smiled sheepishly back.

"What's with the boulders?" I asked, confused.

Raimundo looked sheepish. "I – uh – got a little mad…" I nodded, hearing his thoughts.

Dojo dropped from my shoulders and transformed to his larger size. "All aboard the Dojo express."

* * *

We stood in Master Fung's office minutes later; the four of us covered in grime and me blood and ink. Master Fung stared. "Clay, Omi, why don't you go and put your school robes on; you're just in time for the End-of-Term Feast." They nodded and moved off. "Oh, and Omi?" he held out his hand and Omi placed the Tongue of Saiping in it as all three boys grinned sheepishly.

When they had left, Raimundo launched into the story as Master Fung, Dojo and I sat riveted; for I had only been present for the second half, Dojo had been unconscious on the floor for the majority of his involvement and Master Fung hadn't been present at all. "Before you leave, I wish to thank you. You must've shown me great loyalty in the chamber, only that could've called Dojo to you." We beamed at him. Despite his eccentricities, he was like a father figure to the four of us.

"Call me to them?" Dojo demanded. "What do you mean 'called me to them'? Did you put a spell on me again?" Master Fung cast his x-ray glare on him and he shut up pretty fast, shrinking back to the plant he is always hanging around.

Master Fung cast a quick spell to clean my robes and Raimundo's appeared on him. "The four of you will receive awards for special services to the school. Now, off you go to the feast. I'm sure you're hungry."

When we arrived at the feast, half of Gryffindor house descended upon us: either for details or to let me know how glad they were that I was alright. But mostly details. We sat opposite Clay and Omi as the Great Hall's attention was drawn to the High Table. "As I understand it, the House Cup needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with two hundred and fifty two points;" there was scattered applause. The four of us felt terrible. Gryffindor had been in the lead before the 'Norbert incident'. "in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and twelve points; Ravenclaw, second, with four hundred and twenty six; and in first place, Slytherin, with four hundred and seventy two points." The Slytherins broke into cheers. I felt sick.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin," Master Fung cut in above the noise. "However, recent events must be taken into account and I have a few last-minute points to award." The room went silent.

"First, to Mr Omi Greensberg," Omi looked delighted, "for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." We all cheered. Perhaps we have a chance…

"Second, to Mr Clay Bailey, for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Clay blushed as we all cheered for him. We were catching up…

"Third, to Mr Raimundo Pedrosa and Miss Kimiko Tohomiko, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award them sixty points each. The hall erupted again as I did the mental arithmetic.

"We're tied with Slytherin!" I hissed down the table and everyone looked back to Master Fung eagerly as he raised his hand once more.

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points," all the Gryffindors sat in anxious anticipation, "to Aidan Bakerset."

The entire hall, minus the Slytherins, cheered as they were all ecstatic to see the cup go to someone other than Slytherin. The Gryffindors gave the five of us a standing ovation and Keiko kissed Aidan on the cheek – causing Aidan to promptly turn red – as Master Fung clapped his hands, changing the green and silver Slytherin decorations to red and gold ones, sporting the Gryffindor lion. "Gryffindor wins the house cup!"

* * *

As we left the Hogwarts express and prepared to return to the muggle world for the holidays, I pressed a piece of parchment into Raimundo's hand. "My number." I explained. "I taught Maria how to use a telephone over the year."

He grinned. "And you've got to come over, too. I'm sure Al would love to spend time with you." He pointed to where his parents were waiting, with little Alejandro standing beside them, smiling and waving at Raimundo and me.

"Make sure you call." I added over my shoulder, as I walked to where I saw papa; returning to a world where I was famous for my parentage and eagerly awaiting the end of the summer, when I return to the world where I am famous for me.


End file.
